Episode 7: Elizabeth Head, Head of School, International School of Indiana

As the third Head of School for the International School of Indiana (ISI) and the first female to hold the position, Elizabeth Head is a trailblazing leader with a breadth of International Baccalaureate curriculum, language immersion, and strategic growth experience. Under her leadership and with a vision of creating a unified campus, ISI opened the doors to the new Chen Family Lower School in 2022. Located steps away from the existing middle and high schools on Indianapolis’s Northwest side, the 50,884 sq.-ft., $13.5M building has helped to further collaboration between faculty, students, and families while also becoming a major driving force toward supporting central Indiana’s global economy. In this episode, listen and learn from Head as she explains how she’s working with others to recruit an international workforce for Indiana, and how her leadership style is contributing to a bright future for graduates who are ready to take on the world’s most complex issues. 

Transcript

Sarah Hempstead: Hello, and thank you for tuning in to Illuminate Navigating the Unknown through Creative Leadership. I'm Sarah Hempstead, AIA LEED AP principal in charge and CEO of Schmidt Associates. In 1991, an Indiana Humanities Council task force addressed Indiana's position in a changing world. The task force report titled Indiana, in a Changing World, a Strategy for Action, emphasize the need for Indiana to participate in the world, community and world economy to attract companies and specialist employees, and to make Indiana students more internationally competitive.

Sarah Hempstead: One of the reports, major recommendations led to the creation of the International School of Indiana in 1994. By July, 2002 IS, I was authorized to enroll juniors and seniors into the International Baccalaureate Program, officially making the institution an IB school. And by 2004 ISI saw its first graduating class consisting of eight students.

Sarah Hempstead: Four years later, IB primary and middle years programs began to be incorporated into the curriculum in grades one through five and six through 10. ISI also received certification for both programs in 2011, giving them the Honor as the only school in the Midwestern United States to offer IB MYP and PYP to its students.

Sarah Hempstead: Additionally, ISI announced the launch of its Mandarin immersion program for students. By 2019 ISI launched the one ISI campaign with the intent to unify the lower and upper school campuses. By the 2001 2022 academic year and last August, the Chin Family Lower School was opened. And here to talk to me about the International School of Indiana, ISI, and so much more is my special guest and friend Liz Head, Elizabeth, who serves as the head of school.

Sarah Hempstead: Liz, thanks so much for joining. Happy to be here. I wanted to start, uh, with what led you as the third head of school in 2019 by going all the way back to what you loved about school, when you were growing up. What led you to education in the first place? I'm one of 

Elizabeth Head: those people who, as a child, just loved school.

Elizabeth Head: I realized that's not true for everyone, but it was something that was very true for me. I was the kid who would sit in the house and play school with all of the neighborhood friends. Sometimes I was the teacher and sometimes I was the student, but I loved all of it. I also had a father and a mother who both loved education, uh, spoke multiple languages, and loved just being in a learning environment.

Elizabeth Head: And so that was part of the fun of being in our family. I had a, a father who was a salesman and a mother who was a business owner, and so they taught me a lot about the work ethic and importance of work ethic and how school was such an important piece of my development. So that's how it all started. So when you started your school, were you a full immersion school, just like international school?

Elizabeth Head: No, not at all. Actually, I was a public school kid most of my childhood. I did attend private school for a couple of years of high school, but actually just learned Spanish as a regular high. Schooler taking one Spanish class and then eventually became passionate about language learning as well. Moved abroad.

Elizabeth Head: Lived abroad for 20 years, um, because of my interest in languages. But no, no full immersion for me as a child. 

Sarah Hempstead: So how did you get to founding a school before ISI you founded right? Co-founded the Lighthouse International School. Tell me that story. How did that happen? That was one of those amazing.

Sarah Hempstead: Leadership luck moments, and I say luck because in a lot of the reading I do about leadership, one of those non-tangible components of leadership is luck. 

Sarah Hempstead: Mm-hmm. 

Elizabeth Head: Um, being in the right place at the right time. And someone seeing potential in me that I didn't even see in myself. Mm-hmm. So I had been in Costa Rica, I had been in an international school teaching and doing some leadership actually as a college counselor, uh, in international school there.

Elizabeth Head: And I had a friend of mine who walked up to me and said, did you realize that on the west side of San Jose, there is no international character values based school and we need one. Hmm. And I said, oh great, well you should go talk to some people and, and do that. And uh, and she said, no, no, no, like you would do this so well, and she saw something in me that I didn't even see in myself.

Elizabeth Head: Long story short, she said that she was driving down the street and saw a building that had been abandoned and it was had a for rent sign on the front and that could we drive by and look at it? 'cause it could be a possible school. We walked in and I'm not kidding, it was full of chickens. Chickens and logs of wood for someone building a house down the street.

Elizabeth Head: My friend, as we're walking through starts telling me all of the visions she sees of how this could be restored into a school, and the person taking us on the tour randomly says, oh, that's so funny. You're talking about a school. Just a week ago I met a group of people coming through our same building, interested in establishing a values-based character international school here a week ago.

Elizabeth Head: And we both are Jaws dropped. Sure. So long story short, I pick up the phone. I call one of the people that he mentions, um, was interested in, in this building, and they said, oh my gosh, we have all of the money. We're ready to invest. We just need somebody to lead it. Let's meet. And within two weeks we were all working together to launch a new school.

Elizabeth Head: And three months after that first meeting, I resigned from the job I was at. Worked full-time for eight months and we opened the school full with waiting lists in every grade, age three through grade five, that following August. It was amazing, and I just happened to be in the right place with somebody who saw potential in me that I didn't even see myself 

Sarah Hempstead: well, and the willingness to say yes and jump into that potential too, right?

Elizabeth Head: Hmm. 

Sarah Hempstead: I mean, prep preparation sort of met opportunity and then you said 

Elizabeth Head: Yes. And I, I did say yes. It was, it was a leap of faith for sure. So how long did you stay there? So, I was there for almost six years. Um, I actually decided to resign when I had my second child. Um, I had decided that I needed to be a stay at home mom, that that was gonna be important for me.

Elizabeth Head: Um, and I really had always admired and wanted to be. A great stay at home mom. Mm-hmm. So I tried and I still admire those stay at home moms who do it so well. And I realized quickly within six months that although I love my children more than anything in this world, I'm a better mother. When I'm also excited professionally about what I'm doing.

Elizabeth Head: So within six months I was actually offered a job in a leadership position in another international school and started there. That is also how 

Sarah Hempstead: I ended up back at work. I realized I would be much better at being a mom if I wasn't. Doing that all day, every day. It, 

Elizabeth Head: and it's so true because I love what I do professionally and because I get so energized from it, I actually have much more enthusiasm, energy as a mother, and I like myself as a mother a lot more because of what I do professionally.

Elizabeth Head: That's right, that's right. 

Sarah Hempstead: So when you went back to work, was that back in Costa R? 

Elizabeth Head: So the full last 20 years have all been in Costa Rica before coming to Indiana. And then when I went back to work, I was actually a vice principal part-time for a year or two. And the head of school approached me in the first year and said that she had asked me to do the vice principal job because she knew she would retire in a year.

Elizabeth Head: Okay. And would I be willing to consider the head of school position there? So I became the head of school of this other international school, um, before. The move to Indiana. 

Sarah Hempstead: Well, let's talk about moving from Costa Rica to Indiana, because that is not everyone's natural life progression. Is is is that move.

Sarah Hempstead: So what was it about this particular school or this particular place that made that an attractive opportunity? 

Elizabeth Head: You know, Indiana should be really proud. As a state, I have no connection to Indiana. I was raised in Colorado, spent those 20 years in Costa Rica and had no interest in moving to the Midwest or to Indiana.

Elizabeth Head: Honestly, I didn't know much about Indiana. Didn't feel highly attracted to the state of Indiana. Um, so I didn't have any pull. Sure. It was actually just a random educational consultant who I admire greatly, who picked up the phone and said, Liz, you've gotta check out this school because if you're ever thinking of moving back to the us.

Elizabeth Head: And you want your children to be in an international school. You have fewer than 10 fully international school options in the entire United States. And here's one looking for ahead of school. I wasn't looking for a job. I had a wonderful, the position I was in at this international school was a wonderful job.

Elizabeth Head: I had wonderful, a wonderful board of directors to support me. So I wasn't even looking, didn't even have my resume. Ready to go. And he said this, this consultant, just check out this school and you're gonna be so impressed. And I said, Indiana, really? And his name was John. And John had been to the school I was at in Costa Rica.

Elizabeth Head: I said, John, you know what I have here and what a great job I have. Why would I ever wanna do this? And he said, you just need to check it out. Mm-hmm. So I literally flew, uh, within a a month. To check out ISI and I walked through as really an interested parent. Mm-hmm. More than anything, because I didn't need to move.

Elizabeth Head: I didn't need a job, I didn't need to make the change. And I thought, well, let's just look at this as a parent. I hope one day everyone listening to this just walks through the hallways of the International School of Indiana just to see what's happening in the state of Indiana. Mm-hmm. Because there are very few places in all of the United States.

Elizabeth Head: That do what ISI does and it's exceptionally special and unique and the product of what it produces of the students going out into the world. 1% of high school graduates a year have any, have even close to what our graduates have in terms of the skillset, the attributes, the assets that they take with them.

Elizabeth Head: It's exceptionally special that Indiana has a school like this. And so long story short, as I walked through the hallways, I realized. I want my children to be part of this. And we moved here. 

Sarah Hempstead: So when you were introduced, you were the first female head of school. You were only the third head of school. It's a pretty young program.

Sarah Hempstead: Really here, here at the international school. You were part of a special Indiana Destination Development corporation campaign called Hoosiers By Choice. And I can, I can hear why, uh, in the pride. Mm-hmm. Of pride of place. Right? Hmm. And so your children have found a home here too, right? Talk about raising, raising kids here and what, what the international school can bring to them and sense in the sense of a global perspective and opportunities.

Elizabeth Head: You know, my children are blonde hair, blue-eyed Costa Ricans who spoke Spanish before they spoke English. Sure. And yet you would look at them and you'd think they're just any kid from the us. But they're not, they have a multicultural family. They speak various languages and their childhood was raised around people from all over the world because they attended international schools before moving to the us.

Elizabeth Head: Mm-hmm. So when I brought my children here to Indiana and people would say, you're taking your kids these blonde hair, blue-eyed Spanish speaking, Costa Ricans to Indiana. Really like how are they gonna feel? What's that gonna be like for them? What's the cultural process gonna be like? Well, the fact that the international school exists here, my children enter into a full language Spanish immersion program with native speaking teachers from Latin American countries all over the world that have the cultural expressions and attitudes of Latin Americans from all over the world.

Elizabeth Head: And my children walk into their first day of school, and of course, the nervous mother as they walk out, how was your day? And they looked at me like, what's the big deal, mom? This feels just like. Where we were before because they, they hugged me. They kiss me like Latin Americans do. They speak to me in Spanish.

Elizabeth Head: They like my Costa Rican accent, have a lot of friends. They're from all over the world. That's what I'm used to. It was great, like no big deal, like this is normal school and I love it because that is my children's reality. Every day, every day they go to school and think it's normal to interact with people from all over the world in multiple languages, with teachers who have perspectives from all over the world, and they're constantly thinking about problem solving, critical thinking about complex topics.

Elizabeth Head: About random countries around the world, because for them, that's just normal life and I love that. And I look forward to what they're going to do for the world because of what they've done for so many years during their educational process. That's awesome. 

Sarah Hempstead: So their first day of school went really well.

Sarah Hempstead: Let's talk about your first day of school. So you show up and the task is, we've been talking for 20 years about one ISI one campus. Um, you're the woman to get it done. Go. How, how'd that first day of school go? 

Elizabeth Head: Yeah, I'll be honest. Um, you know, as leaders, and I'm looking at you, Sarah, because I, I trust you, experience the same people look at us for strength and confidence to know exactly what we're doing and to walk in and do what we need to do.

Elizabeth Head: And underneath that. There's some concern of, you know, can I really pull this off? Because I was actually at for-profit schools in Costa Rica, so most private schools in, in other countries, or many of them are for-profit. So when I'm not out fundraising, I, even though I had been head of school of two other schools, I had never done fundraising.

Elizabeth Head: Mm-hmm. I didn't know if I'd be good at it. I didn't even know how to really do it strategically, and I didn't know a single person in Indiana. To even think of how I would network and make connections to ask people for millions of dollars to build a building that the school had been trying to build for 12 years and had really struggled to achieve.

Elizabeth Head: Mm-hmm. And yet I was told my number one priority was, come in, raise. This money and build this building a serious challenge. And yes, I felt considerable amounts of fear and 

Sarah Hempstead: yet we did it. So how'd you start When you, you kind, you came with no, no names in your black book. How did you start establishing those connections, that trust?

Elizabeth Head: You know, when I mentioned that my dad was a salesman and my mom was a business owner, when I think of the two of them, what I most learned was work ethic. And how to build relationships, because as a business owner, you have to have grit and resilience to, to work hard and to be diligent and persistent in a, in a dream and a goal.

Elizabeth Head: And as a salesperson, you have to know how to work well with people because it's the only way to move forward in sales. I realized day one when I arrived to Indiana that the only way this would work was just to dig deep into relationships, build relationships, be as authentic and transparent as I could be, be as human as I could, be as relatable as possible, and reach out to people to connect.

Elizabeth Head: And what I heard, which is so true, is that Hoosiers are open and willing to engage in relationship and to get to know people, and they've been wonderful to connect with. So I just started with. My closest staff members that were welcoming me to the team, who connected me with community partners, who connected me with open doors around the state, and it went from there.

Elizabeth Head: So 

Sarah Hempstead: you got the building built, built long-term relationships, got the building built. How do you think about strategy for ensuring that those donors and friends stay part of the community long term 

Elizabeth Head: relationships? In the end, it all comes back. To people trusting what we do because they're connected to what we do.

Elizabeth Head: So the mission, the vision, the essence is so powerful of what ISI offers. No other school in the Midwest offers it. But how do we keep that mission, vision essence alive for donors, for community partners so that not only do they see that this worked. But that we can continue to build on ISI to the future, and it's all about staying connected in relationships.

Elizabeth Head: I think sometimes one of the challenges I face is that our schedules can become so full of tasks that I have to make sure to constantly prioritize just connecting with people because that's what people give to and that's what people believe in is connection. Oh, 

Sarah Hempstead: one of the things that I've, I've seen you do and the school as, as well, but certainly through your leadership, is a focus on, um, carving out time for listening.

Sarah Hempstead: Uh, talk. Talk to me a little bit about, about that. What was your strategy for engagement? And I know that's, that's hard to do and I You had a hundred meetings. 

Elizabeth Head: One of the most powerful components I believe, of leadership is humility. It's being humble enough to look people in the eyes and say, I want to understand well, and I'm gonna listen as much as I possibly can listen because you have something that I need to learn about.

Elizabeth Head: So when I arrived actually in Indiana four years ago, I went on a six month listening tour, hundreds of hours spent on just listening to all, uh, of the community, partners, parents, students, um, staff. Related to our community, and we actually built our entire strategic plan. From all of those listening sessions that we did in individual people's homes, it was amazingly powerful.

Elizabeth Head: And then in the last year, we went through another three month listening tour. Um, I think we had over 80 meetings. Um, had over 500 comments specifically related to community, to building culture. And once again, we actually revised our strategic plan, modified it, added an additional pillar, all from listening.

Elizabeth Head: To what people have to say and knowing how important it is, what people have to offer. Listening's extremely powerful, especially when people see action steps stem 

Sarah Hempstead: from that listening. When they see that there's actually, there's a result. 

Sarah Hempstead: Mm-hmm. 

Sarah Hempstead: So when someone heard and is there's 

Sarah Hempstead: a result, 

Sarah Hempstead: um, 

Sarah Hempstead: let, let's pivot a little bit to learning styles.

Sarah Hempstead: Um, as we, uh, work with, with clients, uh, we've seen the impact of COVID on the last two years. Um, and some, uh, it has, has been detrimental across the board. Um, and it had really. Required that educators, uh, double down on being connected to their students where they're at, um, and adjusting how education is delivered to get people engaged in minds open as quickly as possible.

Sarah Hempstead: How do you see the international school changing or maybe doubling down on the way that we get students engaged with the material that, that we're trying to teach them? 

Elizabeth Head: You know, COVID really created an educational experiment across the world. Um, we saw some students flourish in a remote environment. We saw some students, um, connect better to content, to material when they were remote.

Elizabeth Head: I would say though, that probably 95% of students did not flourish. In that environment, especially when we do full language immersion with people trying to learn a language across a computer screen. Mm-hmm. So what we learned more than anything was that because of our model, we have to double down on in-person relational connections because learning happens best, especially in multiple languages when you connect in person with people.

Elizabeth Head: Right. Right. 

Sarah Hempstead: Um, now that we're all back, we're all back in, in person, school is full. Um, what's the next big goal? 

Elizabeth Head: That's what's exciting. Um, that's, that's the really fun part. Um, so we are back, we're back in person and we are fully unified for the first time in 28 years. History of ISI, we're unified on one campus.

Elizabeth Head: We have all of our families, students, parents, staff, all together, all interacting and there's so much possibility and opportunity there. So that's a really exciting time. For ISI, what's next? Um, we've actually already started planning out, uh, the next campaign, which will take us into the next five to 10 years of planning because not only have we now been unified on campus, but we need to protect that campus.

Elizabeth Head: We need to think carefully about building a long-term legacy for the school, not just the short-term needs of getting everyone together. So we've been looking at some very strategic priorities related to long-term. Um, financial stability for the school, preserving and taking good care of our campus. And then also really focusing now on upper school because lower school had a lot of attention given because of the new building, focusing on upper school and the needs of upper school students, especially in athletics, performing arts so that they also can see, um, the benefits provided to them.

Elizabeth Head: So we're looking at a variety of projects that will be coming over these next few years. 

Sarah Hempstead: So let's pivot then to what's, what's next for you as you grow as a leader? Um, how do you continue to find, find the nourishment for those skill sets that, that you need? I 

Elizabeth Head: am a big believer in the fact that I have to be healthy emotionally, socially, psychologically, spiritually, to be able to help and serve everyone that I work with every day So intentionally.

Elizabeth Head: Through all of the years that I've been in leadership and even before then, but in, in all of the years I've been in leadership, I've been very intentional about making sure to surround myself with a few key people that are much wiser and much more insightful than I. So if that's a coach, if that's a counselor, if that's a wise mentor, if that's a community partner that I've realized, just knows so much about what I want to understand.

Elizabeth Head: Mm-hmm. I right now can think of now and five years ago, 10 years ago, and 15 years ago, through all of the leadership I've done, I can think of those key people who I lean into meet with regularly, invest time in to really look at myself, reflect on my strengths and my weaknesses, because I want to be aware of who I am so that I can offer my best to everyone around me.

Sarah Hempstead: So if you were the mentor for yourself 20 years ago, what, what would you have? What would you have told you then? What'd you wish you knew? I 

Elizabeth Head: wish I would've given myself more grace. I am passionate about what I do and I always wanna do it well, and of course that's a strength of course, but that also can be really.

Elizabeth Head: Challenging when, when there isn't a lot of grace mixed in with it. And so I think back, um, to myself as a child in school and, and how much I wanted to excel in school and then in college and then professionally. And I've always, um, I've always had a lot of pressure on myself to excel because I love to do that.

Elizabeth Head: But I wish, and, and I, and I hope others younger than I. Would just remember to have grace. It's just okay to be where I'm at and to be okay with that and to enjoy right where I'm at, the good, the bad, and the ugly. That's, that is great 

Sarah Hempstead: advice. Alright, I'm gonna ask you two final questions. One is, I ask everybody and, and one's just for you.

Sarah Hempstead: So the, just for you, where is the next trip? Where's your next dream trip? The world is your oyster. Everything's opened up. 

Elizabeth Head: Where are you going? I'm actually going back and I don't have it planned, but I, I hope too soon I'm going back to just a place that I've loved and I've been there before, so it's not a new one.

Elizabeth Head: Um, I went to a hostel with a. A close, close friend in college, the very top of the Swiss Alps called Gald in, in Switzerland. And it is just this tiny little town that, um, you can barely get to except climbing a mountain or, or taking a gondola. And you stay up there with a bunch of mountaineer type and look at these amazing mountains in silence and just enjoy the piece of beauty.

Elizabeth Head: I'm going back to Gim involved Switzerland. That's awesome. 

Sarah Hempstead: You're 

Elizabeth Head: not taking the three children not taking, that's, that's not a, there's no looking at the mountain piece. That's, that's, that's not a sit down peaceful look with three children. No. Fair enough. 

Sarah Hempstead: All right. And then my last question that I ask everybody, uh, we need a book recommendation.

Sarah Hempstead: What are you reading now that you love or that you have read in the recent past? 

Elizabeth Head: You know, I'm actually gonna give you an oldie but goodie I frequently read about leadership because I, I love this type of topic. And so this is an interesting one, but I dunno if you've read the Five Love Languages and you probably have heard a lot about them.

Elizabeth Head: I have read that through the lens of how to apply that in the workplace. I think one of my biggest responsibilities is to work very closely with my leadership team and with other leaders in the institution and to study them personally. To know what makes them click, what motivates them, what excites them, and what makes them feel valued and understood.

Elizabeth Head: Mm-hmm. Because my job is to adjust my communication style, my work style to each one of them, not for them to adjust to me. Sure. So when I think of a, a book that I continue to go back to, sure. Five Love Languages has to do with relationships or marriages well, but it also has to do with how can I care?

Elizabeth Head: Well. About the people that I work with so that they know that they're cared for and supported 

Sarah Hempstead: by, by me Back to, back to communication, right? Mm-hmm. Communicating in a way that people can hear Absolutely. Or listening. Absolutely. That's awesome. 

Sarah Hempstead: Um, thank you so much for spending time with me today. I always enjoy our conversation.

Sarah Hempstead: I look forward to the next step at the International School. Um, to learn more about Liz ISI and their curricular approach, visit www.isind.org. This has been illuminate navigating the unknown through creative leadership. Thank you for listening, and please subscribe wherever you get your podcast to be reminded of new episodes and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at Schmid Associates and at Schmidt ASSO on Twitter.