PASL Welcomes Dr. Miguel Cardona for Fall Dinner With a Decision Maker
The 12th U.S. Secretary of Education joined Philadelphia school leaders for a day of conversation on opportunity, equity, and leadership at every level.
On October 6th, the Philadelphia Academy of School Leaders (PASL) welcomed Dr. Miguel Cardona, 12th United States Secretary of Education, for its fall Dinner With a Decision Maker at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The day brought together 76 Neubauer Fellows from all nine cohorts, alongside civic, education, and community partners, to learn from a leader whose career spans every level of public education.
Dr. Cardona served as a teacher, principal, district leader, and state education commissioner before becoming U.S. Secretary of Education. His path represents the largest-scale version of the leadership journey PASL Fellows are on, and his tenure touched every leadership lever the Fellowship centers, from equity and instructional leadership to systems and operations.
Shining Light Award
The evening opened with a welcome from PASL Executive Director Dr. Edwin M. Quezada, followed by the presentation of this year’s Shining Light Award to LeAndrea Baltimore-Hagan (Cohort 6, 2020 Neubauer Fellow), principal of John M. Patterson Elementary School. Baltimore-Hagan was joined on stage by Dr. Cardona and Dr. Tony B. Watlington Sr., Superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, to accept the honor.
Joseph Neubauer then offered remarks before Fellows and guests sat down to dinner.
From the Classroom to the Cabinet
The evening’s centerpiece was a fireside chat with Dr. Cardona, moderated by Dr. Alphonso Evans, Sr., Assistant Superintendent of Learning Network 5 in the School District of Philadelphia, and Amanda Jones, principal of The Honorable Luis Muñoz Marín Elementary School.
The conversation traced how Dr. Cardona’s journey from classroom teacher to Secretary shaped his approach to adaptive and systems leadership. During his tenure, he led the reopening of the nation’s schools after the pandemic and oversaw $190 billion in federal relief funding to support academic recovery and student mental health. Fellows explored what those national approaches can teach leaders at the building level, from academic recovery and continuous improvement to family and community partnership.
The discussion also turned to the principal’s role as instructional leader, and to how leaders can develop, mentor, and support educators while managing complex systems and building solutions that last.
That conversation lands at a meaningful moment for Philadelphia. The District’s four-year graduation rate has climbed from 74% to 80% over the past two years, and more than 3,500 students have improved their regular attendance. Proficiency remains a challenge, and the evening underscored the role school leaders play in ensuring that gains in graduation are matched by growth in what students achieve in the classroom.
Four Reminders from Secretary Cardona
Across the roundtable and the fireside chat, Dr. Cardona returned to a number of ideas that Fellows and partners can carry back to their schools and organizations, including:
- Be an architect, not a firefighter.
- Lead like you are running out of time.
- Stay close to your Why.
- Build systems, not superheroes.
Taken together, these insights describe the kind of leadership the Neubauer Fellowship is built to develop: leaders who design for the long term, act with urgency, stay grounded in purpose, and build schools that do not depend on any one person to succeed.
