Every month, throughout 2022, our Marketing Communications Leader is connecting with parents of young children at our partner organizations to lift up the insights of these hard-working parents and the work of our amazing partners. 

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FAST FACTS

• Name: Leah Sutton 
• Location of NC: Wayne County, Eastern NC
• When she became a parent: in 2017, at age 30
• Her focus: Ensuring all students have access to great educators 
• Organization she is involved in: Vice President of Policy & Engagement at BEST NC
• How she got involved in this line of work: After attaining a degree in History Education from NC State University, Leah taught for six years, with time spent as a Pitt County high school Social Studies teacher and Wake County middle school English Language Arts teacher. An interest in better understanding how education policies were developed and seeing first-hand how those policies impacted students and educators led to a Master’s Degree in Education Policy. Following her graduate work, she worked at The Hunt Institute, a nationally focused educational nonprofit, before coming to BEST NC to work exclusively on education policy in North Carolina.
• Who she parents: Son, Granger, will turn five in September and daughter Maggie turned two in May. 

Q&A FEATURED FOCUS: 

1. Lindsay: I’m so impressed with your journey. You started as an educator in the classroom, moved over to policy work and now are guiding policy and engagement for a coalition of businesses. How has your perspective on NC’s education system shifted over all of this? 
   Leah: Thanks! My journey has taken turns that I never expected, but I’m really grateful to be working on issues that I am passionate about.

   My perspective has shifted tremendously since I first began my career as a teacher in 2009. When I was in the classroom I was, understandably so, focused on my own students and my school community.
   
   As I have moved into new positions and been required to consider the policies that have created and now undergird our education system, I can see that the challenges I faced as a teacher were caused by problems in how our system is fundamentally structured. For instance, early career teachers often lack the professional support and coaching they need to be successful. That’s at least, in part, due to the fact that we ask principals to manage everyone in a school building, rather than distributing leadership across a team of people. In this case, it’s not the fault of the beginning teacher or even the principal; the system hasn’t set them up for success.

2. Lindsay: What issues are you most passionate about and what spurred that interest?
   Leah: In the early childhood sector, I am really concerned with ensuring all families have access to the early childhood learning spaces they need and deserve. As a working parent, I know how important it is to have a safe and caring place for your child to go each day. Although my children are enrolled in a really great center now, we have struggled over the years to find the right fit for us at an affordable price and without a long waitlist. There are so many other families struggling with both the lack of spaces available and with the high cost of childcare. We need to solve both of those problems while also ensuring early childhood educators can earn a living wage (which most aren’t right now).

3. Lindsay: What kind of policy solutions do you think could uplift families?
   Leah: I definitely think we need to increase access to NC Pre-K, so that more eligible children can attend. We are so lucky to have such a high-quality state Pre-K program in North Carolina, we just need more children to have access. I also think we need to consider creative policy solutions to increase the number of early learning spaces for children from birth to age three. This is a crucial time in a child’s development, and we simply do not have enough high-quality, affordable options to meet the needs of families.

4. Lindsay: It’s encouraging to find a coalition of business leaders prioritizing education. Being in business keeps folks BUSY though. How do business leaders engage to make an impact? What sort of role do they play in influencing our state’s educational environment?
   Leah: You’re right. Most business leaders care a lot about education, but have little time to engage in finding and advocating for solutions. That’s where BEST NC comes in. Our members trust us to stay engaged on the education issues that matter most and to suggest solutions that will make the biggest difference for students. When we find those key issues, having the support of the business community opens doors for us to pursue education transformation and improvement.

5. Lindsay: Who do you look up to for the things you work on?
   Leah: There are so many folks who have impacted me professionally. I’ve learned a great deal about communications and advocacy from BEST NC’s President & CEO Brenda Berg. She is incredibly passionate about transforming education but is also one of the hardest working people I’ve ever met. 

   My next-door teacher colleague Lesley Mace was so impactful in the first few years of my career. She taught me so much about what it means to be a good teacher, how to meet students’ diverse learning needs, and how to set high expectations for students (and myself).

6. Lindsay: What do you see is needed to restore families of young children to feeling a sense of stability and balance?
   Leah: Given the stresses of the pandemic and the uncertainty around childcare availability over the last couple of years, I think families would benefit from a greater sense of consistency. Everyone has been dealing with school closures, exposures, and quarantines that have caused significant interruptions to our children’s routines (and ours as parents and employees). As we continue to recover from the pandemic, I hope families will have consistent and sustained access to early learning environments and educators that are able to be present and engaged in student learning.
   
   

7. Lindsay: The work you do both as a parent and policy leader is long and often tiring, but REALLY matters so much. What motivates you to keep feeling and doing your best work?
   Leah: Well, my kids are a being motivator to keep pressing forward (and they usually won’t take no for an answer anyway). Quality time with my kids and my husband really fuels me and charges me up for the difficult work that I do.

   Professionally, I am really grateful to be working on policies and programs that are directly affecting students and educators. For instance, the TeachNC initiative, which BEST NC helped launch, has (so far) recruited more than 2,000 future teachers into educator preparation programs across the state. Those educators will go on to impact thousands of students over the course of their careers. That makes all the hard work worth it. Plus, we have an incredible team at BEST NC that makes coming to work much more fun!

8. Lindsay: What has shifted in your perspective since becoming a parent?
   Leah: I think I’m more forgiving now. I often think that if I was still in the classroom, I would be a more forgiving and understanding teacher now that I have seen my own children struggle to behave and struggle to focus (especially because I know my own children have resources and supports many children don’t).
   
   I also think I am even more mindful of how important educators are. The teachers, directors, and principals we entrust are children to have such a tremendous responsibility and we need to make sure they have the resources and working conditions they need to be successful.

9. Lindsay: The news seems to be nuts, politics are pretty shocking, and the world keeps on giving us wild twists and turns, while we’re busy working our jobs as professionals and parents. What worries you the most, as a parent?
   Leah: Gosh, there are so many things to be worried about. I’m worried that the divisive and negative rhetoric we see on TV and online will impact their mental health as they grow. I’m worried about social media and how they will or won’t engage with it as adolescents. I’m worried about finding the right balance between discipline and compassion. There’s definitely no handbook to this job!

10. Lindsay: What gives you hope as a parent?
    Leah: It can be frightening to have small children at home during a time when there is so much divisiveness and pain in the world. But at the same time, it is also a saving grace. Young children are so inherently joyful and kind and loving. Seeing how they approach their surroundings with curiosity and excitement, watching them learn, and observing the way they love others is really the greatest joy. It gives me hope to know that these kind little people are (hopefully) going to grow into compassionate adults that make a difference in the world.

11. Lindsay: What kinds of things bring joy to you and your family?
    Leah: One of the joys of having young children is that they find happiness and excitement in small things. We love singing in the car, reading books at bedtime, and playing dress up. Those little quick activities bring us closer together as a family and bring a sense of enjoyment and fun into our home.

    We also love going to local events in our community including the Wayne County Partnership for Children’s annual “Touch-A-Truck” event and Mt. Olive’s “Pickle Drop” on New Year’s Eve.

12. Lindsay: As our families and communities prepare to start another traditional school year, what do you think we need most to support stability and success for young children, our educators, and the others who support them?
    Leah: When I think about early learning, one of the things we need most (and my family needs it too) is a stronger pipeline of early childhood educators. We need the public to understand the tremendous value these educators provide for our children and their families so that the profession can be a desirable one to enter. In order to make it more desirable, we also need investments in early learning so that these educators can actually earn a living wage and stay in the profession.

BEST NC, which stands for Business for Educational Success and Transformation, represents business leaders from across the state, many of which are regularly among some of the best places to work in the country and have adopted family-friendly policies for employees. BEST NC’s primary focus is on K-12 public education in North Carolina, with a specific focus on ensuring each student has access to a great teacher and school leader. This commitment extends to early childhood where we see the early childhood sector often struggles to recruit and retain high-quality educators for our state’s youngest children. BEST NC is supportive of policies and investments that seek to recruit, prepare, compensate, and retain great teachers for early learning spaces, especially Pre-K.  

Along with NCECF, BEST NC, through Leah’s representation, is a member of the Think Babies Alliance leadership team, which is led by the NC Early Education Coalition. BEST NC also collaborated with NCECF, NC Child, and the North Carolina Partnership for Children on the development of the Pathways to Grade-Level Reading project. Follow and learn more about BEST NC on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Connect with Leah Sutton on LinkedIn and follow her on Twitter.