Heather Graham, Principal, Bell Hill Academy, Grass Valley, CA

Host Brian Buckley leads a deep dive into the life and times of a passionate and innovative educator. There’s a deeper work going on in education that doesn’t hit the news about closed classrooms and online learning. One great example is Heather’s “dual immersion” bi-lingual magnet program at Bell Hill Academy in Grass Valley. Growing up in a family of teachers in Redding, California, she discovered her love of languages and after thinking about other life directions, eventually found her future as an educator. She perfected her conversational Spanish while living in Oaxaca and teaching English in a private school. Back in California, favorite memories include building social coffee time into a sense of community while teaching ESL classes for adults, and helping a student obtain a final paycheck from an employer who was trying to cheat her out of it. While some envision educational administration as paper-pushing, Heather finds it an opportunity to lead others into performing effectively as a team. As a long-time visitor to Nevada County with friends here, it was an easy decision to apply and accept her Principalship at Bell Hill Academy in 2017.