Hello Reader,

Year of the Fire Horse is around the corner, and true to form, the country and the world seem at the edge of multiple chaotic, treacherous transitions – or ruptures, as some are saying. Amid the tragedy and dehumanization playing out in Minneapolis and elsewhere, it helps me to recognize how many regular folks are stepping up to help their neighbors and to demand that ICE has no place in our schools or communities. Especially now, coming together in community to take collective action feels like the way forward.

Getting to other parts of the country this fall and winter has also been a reminder of how many educators, students, and community members are unwavering in their commitments to just schools, whether they are in relatively calm contexts or navigating virulent attacks and within hostile institutions, cities and states. In the vein of our book’s central metaphor of cycles, Decoteau and I have been saying that night has fallen. Even so, educators, families, and young people are still “doing the work” of equity leadership – from Baltimore to Chicago, from Seattle to Phoenix, and even from Japan to Brazil, we’ve gotten to engage with educators and community leaders who are doing just that. So I want you to know: you are not alone!

In this missive, I share ruminations on community sparked by recent gatherings I’ve gotten to be part of; a new paper about my own story of Asian American leadership; and an invite for you to join us at one of my favorite events of the year at the UW: the Leading towards Justice Symposium, February 6-7, 2026.

Community as a way forward

More and more organizations have abandoned their bold statements and taken language related to diversity, equity and inclusion off their websites and grand vision statements (too early, given the court ruling that now stands!). Amid those shifts, more and more conversations are beginning to converge around the role of community. The mobilization of neighbors, educators, community members, and families in Minneapolis, LA, Chicago, Portland and elsewhere (including Seattle now) has been crucial in resisting the violence, hatred, and all-out attacks on immigrants and other communities of color. Two recent engagements I had this past month were lovely opportunities to talk about and witness the energy of community coming together to support public education, to build thriving communities, and to grapple with doing the work in unjust times.

In this recent Oregon Public Broadcasting discussion about the current and future of public education in Oregon, I got to share the stage with an early childhood policy advocate, a rural superintendent, and an alternative high school principal. While we brought different lenses, we converged in talking about the crucial role of community (OPB did this cool project where they followed kids from kindergarten all the way to their graduation in 2025 - their powerful documentary showcases the beautiful and struggling humans within educational systems, do check it out!). You can listen to our conversation on OPB’s Think Out Loud (and support your local public radio!)

I also got to commune with the educator and scholarly community in Phoenix to talk about Doing the Work with co-authors Decoteau Irby and Dr. Ishmael Miller. What a treat! If you are ever in Phoenix, you must check out Palabras Bilingual Bookstore and the connected orgs that make up Casa Caracol!

I also wanted to share a bit about another book co-author, Dr. Ishmael Miller. Dr. Miller is now an Assistant Professor in the Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation at Arizona State University. He started as a UW graduate research assistant in our equity director study and has gone on to become a powerful scholar who has already won awards for his examinations of leadership and policy to address systemic inequities in PK–12 school systems and community-based education spaces. He and Dr. Andrew Matschiner (Chapman University) wrote a chapter in Doing the Work about a national survey of equity leader practices – not just what they are supposed to do, but what they actually do and what they think they should be doing to advance equity (spoiler alert: they are often not aligned). As his proud former advisor, I urge you to keep your eye out for Dr. Miller and check out his latest publication about Black fugitive space for Black male administrators!

Asian American leadership as solidarity

In the roar of so much else happening, I published a new paper whose title sounds admittedly abstract: On our own terms: Asian diasporic onto-epistemologies of educational leadership as radical relationality.

As I say in the paper, there was a point in graduate school where I looked around and wondered if I was “allowed” to study leadership. Asian American women were practically absent from both practice and scholarship (with the exception of one controversial former superintendent, whom my mom thinks I resemble but whose policies were quite counter to those I was interested in studying - I’ll let you guess who that was).

Anyway, I know “onto-epistomologies” sounds pretty wonky, but we all have basic understandings about the world and ways that we exist in it, and that’s what it refers to. In this paper, I share how Japanese American, Asian American, and Black, Latinx and Indigenous community leadership that I experienced taught me a fundamentally different understanding of “leadership” from the conceptions I found in the academy. It’s an approach to leadership that has less to do with titles and formal authority and more to do with collective values, shared commitments, and ongoing practices of solidarity. You’ll also get to learn from the brilliant Dr. Taeyeon Kim about her Korean teaching roots and socialization into the research as an immigrant transnational scholar. Email me if you can’t access the article & I’m happy to share.

Dr. Kim has been an amazing collaborator and thought partner on the paper but also a fellow co-editor with other Asian American women scholars of ed leadership, Drs. Van Lac and Grace Liang. Together the four of us co-edited the first-ever special issue on Asian American educational leadership in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, with the support of Daniel Liou (recently awarded 2026 Distinguished Researcher by the AAPI Ed Research Special Interest Group of our major research association!). This group (celebrating our special issue over food, of course!), along with irene yoon and a handful of others, also cultivated what has become a beautiful Asian diasporic Research Action Network at UCEA.

I couldn’t resist a photo of me here with Dr. Ron Ogawa, who became a mentor and beacon for me, not just because he was a “giant” in my field who was also Japanese American, but because his theorizing of leadership beyond individuals so profoundly shaped the way I have come to understand and study leadership. When I was a “baby professor” (as Dr. Paul Kim says), Ron’s curiosity and generosity as a highly-esteemed senior scholar helped me move from feeling bashful about participatory design to recognizing it as a vital way forward for education research that matters. Okage sama de!

Leading towards Justice: Coalitions for Collective Action

This year’s theme for the University of Washington College of Education’s Leading towards Justice Symposium on February 6-7 at the University of Washington is: Building Coalitions for Collective Action towards Educational Justice. I didn’t even come up with it, y’all. It’s in the air! My local peeps will get to catch Decoteau and me in conversation with Dr. Keisha Scarlett (Doing the Work afterword author). Then on Saturday morning, you’ll get to witness the power of Indigenous leadership and lifeways in action at Quil Ceda Tulalip Elementary in conversation with Dr. Chelsea Craig, Dr. Irene Bare, and youth, families, and educators from their community, followed by 22 other workshops and active engagements with equity-centered leaders. Registration is OPEN - see you there!

Upcoming activities & opportunities

At a time when children are being harmed, families live in fear, and educators are pleading for the safety of their schools, the connection and collective action of community has never been more important. The tactical frivolity of the frog brigade is a source of delight and pride for me as a former Portlander. Hearing large groups of everyday people singing resistance on the streets and Bad Bunny (my guy!) using his huge platform to call ICE out, affirm humanity, and advocate for love – those are reminders of the power of music, joy and connection. And as Tressie McMillan Cottom said recently, the antidote to political exhaustion from the onslaught of bad news is to get active, to jump in, to do whatever we can to connect and move collectively towards more just futures.

Let’s go!

Ann