In this episode of Leading Out Loud, Chantell Manahan sits down with Dr. Dana Altemeyer, a fellow French-teacher-turned-district-leader, to explore why storytelling is one of the most powerful tools in educational leadership.

Together, they unpack how great leaders use storytelling to build trust, strengthen relationships, and shape school culture. From everyday emails and staff updates to district-wide communication strategies, every message tells a story and those stories influence how people feel, connect, and engage.

This conversation bridges the human side of communication with the strategic systems that help storytelling scale across a school or district. You’ll walk away with practical insights on communicating with empathy, aligning messages with values, and designing communication systems that support trust instead of eroding it.

Whether you’re a school leader, district administrator, or educator looking to improve how you communicate, this episode will challenge you to think more intentionally about the stories your messages are telling.

In this episode of Leading Out Loud, I sit down with my brilliant friend Monica Watts, Senior Director of Community Programs at 1EdTech, to unpack the world of data standards in education.

If that sounds technical, don’t worry; we make it practical. Because this episode is about demystifying the acronyms and architecture and leaning into the strategy and soul of the way these standards impact the classroom.

We explore how interoperability and open standards like CASE, OneRoster, and LTI create the foundation for aligned instruction, scalable ecosystems, and better learning experiences for students. Monica brings her signature clarity and warmth as we talk about why this moment matters for districts, for teachers, and for learners.

Whether you're just beginning your interoperability journey or knee-deep in system integrations, this conversation bridges the tech and the human and will leave you rethinking what your systems are really built for.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why interoperability is a people-first strategy

• What the Google x CASE integration actually unlocks

• How open standards power instructional alignment

• Where to start if your district is ready to take the next step

When tech doesn’t work, it’s not just frustrating; it’s disruptive. In this episode, I sit down with HubbleIQ founders Keyvan Berenjian and Belinda Batdorf to explore the human story behind their company. We’ll talk about the moment they realized the support experience was broken, why they felt called to fix it, and how their mission is rooted in making technology support faster, easier, and more human.

This isn’t a product demo. It’s a founder’s journey of vision, grit, and purpose. And of course, we’ll wrap with a laugh-and-learn moment that proves even in tech, humor is part of the process.