SHARON KEBSCHULL BARRETT is the vice president for editorial services and communications at Public Impact. She writes publications about the Opportunity Culture initiative, edits all materials for the Opportunity Culture website, edits the firm’s blogs and Public Impact reports, works with Opportunity Culture Fellows to edit the columns they write, and provides other research, interviewing, and writing for the firm. A former newspaper reporter and copy editor, Ms. Barrett is the author of two cookbooks, Desserts from an Herb Garden and Morning Glories (St. Martin’s Press). She has a B.A. in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she served as editor of The Daily Tar Heel.
Why I Do This Work: “Telling the stories of inspiring educators and how they make a difference with their students and fellow teachers and principals makes my job joyful—and through our Opportunity Culture work, I will never run out of such stories to share!”
Example projects: Ms. Barrett writes Opportunity Culture case studies and other publications and materials for the Opportunity Culture website, including instructional leadership and excellence materials. She co-authored the op-ed “Will Learning Pods Be Only for the Rich?” for Education Week in August 2020, wrote “Recruiting for Hard-to-Staff Schools” for the August 2015 School Administrator magazine, and co-authored “Turnaround principal competencies: A process for hiring the most skillful leaders for the demands of changing the fortunes of the most-troubled schools”for School Administrator in August 2012. Other work includes multiple columns published in EducationNC, including “How one educator used a paraprofessional role to become a stronger teacher” in August 2020, “Consistency and care: Confronting COVID-19 in a rural school community” in April 2020, and “Putting data in its place: How strong teaching teams use data to achieve student growth” in March 2020. She co-authored Innovative Staffing to Personalize Learning: How new teaching roles and blended learning help students succeed.
