TEMPLE, Texas — Dr. Lisa Adams, the Deputy Superintendent of Academics and School Leadership for the Temple Independent School District, has been selected to participate in the first Aspiring Superintendent Leadership Program hosted by the Holdsworth Center in Austin.
Adams, who has worked in Temple ISD for more than two decades, is one of just 14 school district leaders from across the state who were selected to participate in the inaugural Aspiring Superintendent Leadership Program cohort. The 15-month program started last week and is designed to help high-potential aspiring superintendents gain mastery of skills and mindsets needed to be exceptional superintendents from day one. According to the Holdsworth Center’s description of the program, leaders will apply new skills immediately through special projects created in partnership with their superintendent. Aspiring superintendents will assess their readiness for the superintendency and set goals to master skills where they clearly need more practice. Program learning will focus on communication, board relations, and other skills that have taken on greater importance in recent years. Each leader will be assigned a coach from Holdsworth’s group of superintendents-in-residence. By design, leaders will apply what they are learning on the job, share the results with their coach and get advice on how they can hone their approach and reach mastery of those skills.
“I am very honored to be chosen for the Aspiring Superintendent Leadership Program at the Holdsworth Center,” Adams said. “Holdsworth has designed a program to allow us to pull back the curtain and see what a superintendency is really like. I am so privileged to be a part of that learning and support Temple ISD.”
The Holdsworth Center’s aim with the program is to design a comprehensive approach to strengthening the superintendent pipeline statewide, citing a lack of high-quality programs to prepare and support superintendents in a very difficult job.
“Developing leadership pipelines are a hallmark of high performing organizations,” said Dr. Bobby Ott, superintendent of Temple schools. “Temple ISD has committed to developing leadership experiences for different positions in order to make sure we have the best ‘bench-ready’ administrators in line for our students. We are grateful that Dr. Adams was accepted in this program and look forward to supporting her development as an executive leader.”
Ott, Adams, and Dr. Donna Ward, assistant superintendent of human resources for Temple schools, participated in the Holdsworth Leadership Collaborative. That experience helped lead to the creation of Temple ISD’s Leadership Definition Framework and the establishment of the district’s principal pipeline program to develop and prepare high-performing assistant principals to move into principal roles.