In episode 107, Cassandra Washington interviews Dr. Nadia Lopez, former Principal at Mott Hall Bridge Academy in Brooklyn, New York, and discusses how principals need to put their mental health first in a job that requires so much of them.

Dr. Nadia Lopez is an award-winning educator who became a viral sensation after the popular blog Humans of New York featured her as one of their most influential people. Disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline, Dr. Lopez founded Mott Hall Bridges Academy, a STEAM-focused middle school in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York, in 2010 and served as the principal for ten years.

She was named LinkedIn’s 2019 Top 10 Voices in Education and received the Black Girls Rock award–alongside Michelle Obama in 2015. That same year Dr. Lopez visited the White House with President Obama, and in 2016 she was recognized as Varkey Foundation’s Top 50 Global Teacher Prize Finalist. Her TED Talk on the “Education Revolution” has garnered more than a million views. She also serves as a guest lecturer at Harvard University’s Graduate School for Education and various colleges around the world, teaching students on the subject matter of Transformative Justice, Education, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline. She is the author of the book, The Bridge to Brilliance and Teaching In The Fourth Industrial Revolution. In 2020, Dr. Lopez ended her tenure as Mott Hall Bridges Academy’s principal to focus on her work as a mental health advocate and wellness enthusiast. After developing a stress-related illness that threatened her life, she dug deeper into her passion for educating, providing workforce training and coaching through her company, The Lopez Effect.

Episode 1: My Road to the Principalship

Tales from the Principal's Chair By Tales from the Principals' ChairAug 18, 2022