Episode 27: Tony Smith, Superintendent of Oakland Unified School District

I sat down with Tony Smith, Superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District at the School’s Out Washington Bridge Conference in Seattle, WA on October 9, 2012. Before we talked, Dr. Smith copresented a keynote for the conference with Jakada Imani, Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (and past Please Speak Freely guest). The two of them discussed the inequities in our public systems, the important role of youth as change-makers, and the need to engage in critical dialogue across systems. Dr. Smith had so many great things to say in that presentation that I used much of it for this episode. This allowed me to talk with him about his own path–how he came to approach the work as he does, and his own experience in public education. Many thanks to School’s Out Washington for sponsoring this episode!