Biggest Challenges Faced By An Executive Director At Los Angeles Coalition For Excellent Public Schools
Joni, Executive Director at the Los Angeles Coalition for Excellent Public Schools, finds the biggest challenge of the role to be "Coalition work," specifically navigating the diverse viewpoints of ten charter management organizations and numerous nonprofits to achieve consensus on a shared direction. This requires strong relationship-building skills to bridge sometimes opposing viewpoints and facilitate open communication, a skill Joni finds both rewarding and essential to the success of the coalition's advocacy efforts.
Executive/Leadership, Communication, Teamwork, Problem-Solving, Overcoming Challenges
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Joni Angel
Executive Director
Los Angeles Coalition for Excellent Public Schools
University of Michigan 2003
Harvard Kennedy School, Master in Public Policy, 2010. Pace University, Master in the Science of Teaching, 2005.
Ethnic & Related Studies
Education, Government & Public Sector
Strategic Management and Executive
Honors Student
Video Highlights
1. Relationship building is crucial in coalition work, but can also be challenging when diverse viewpoints need to be aligned.
2. Reaching consensus among multiple organizations with differing perspectives is a significant hurdle in advocacy work.
3. Open communication and strong relationships between individuals and organizations are key to overcoming challenges in collaborative projects.
Transcript
What is the biggest challenge in your current role?
In the last question about what I enjoy, I talked about relationship building, which is something I really enjoy. The flip side of that, and what can be really challenging, is coalition work.
I think of coalition work as bringing together lots of people who you likely have a relationship with, and then getting all of them to agree on a direction together. That can be very challenging.
In my current work, I work with ten different Charter Management Organizations and lots of other nonprofits in the space. It can be really challenging to have all of these people, with very different experiences coming from very different organizations, agree on a direction that the coalition should work in.
Sometimes those viewpoints are on totally opposite ends of the spectrum on something, and it can be really challenging to actually make a decision and move forward when people have such opposing viewpoints. I do think that relationship building helps to mitigate that, both me having a strong relationship with those individuals, but also them having a relationship with each other, and thus being able to have open lines of communication.
But coalition work is really a very challenging part of any kind of advocacy work that people do.
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