Angela Jerabek Discusses Leveraging Voice on Influential She Podcast

Three adult headshots

BARR’s (Building Assets, Reducing Risks) Founder and Executive Director Angela Jerabek recently joined Influential She Podcast Hosts Melody Schopp and Deb Soholt to share how leveraging her own and others’ voices has been critical to BARR’s success as the nation’s leading evidence-based school improvement model. Check out the full podcast

“The power of my work has come from honing in to hear others’ voices,” Jerabek said. 

Working with more than 150,000 students in 21 states and D.C., BARR leverages and empowers current staff to lead to better results for students. 

“Educators are incredibly talented when we provide a system we can recognize their talents in,” Jerabek said. 

During the conversation, Jerabek shared the importance of providing educators across the country with a strengths-based structure to listen to students’ voices and experiences within to provide them with the best support.  

“I think one of the most critical things that BARR does is give every educator a voice, just like it gives students a voice,” Jerabek said. “It is empowering and makes them feel like they’re able to carry their message forward first with other educators and then within the community.”

As a K-12 model, BARR is based on two pillars: relationships and data. The relationships at the foundation of the model are staff-to-staff, staff-to-student, and student-to-student. While these relationships are critical to improving school culture, both quantitative and qualitative data are also key in empowering staff in understanding students socially, emotionally and academically. 

With the Influential She Podcast centered around providing an understanding of high leverage practices that unlock women’s potential to influence the world, Soholt and Schopp asked Jerabek to share more about her journey as a leader in education.

“So much of innovation and leading means you are doing things that others haven’t done,” Jerabek said. 

Throughout BARR’s 22 years of research, Jerabek shared she has continued to surround herself with other influential leaders and a team to be able to problem-solve, strategize and ideate with. By leveraging her voice and others’, BARR has been able to make an impact on education through innovation that all started with a hope for a better future for students.