Rebekah Cummings: From Librarian to Running for State Office and Living the "Antidote to Despair"
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
Release Date: 08/10/2024
Mary Chris Finnigan: Director of Academics for Student-Athletes at the University of Utah
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
In the last episode we heard about the mental health needs of college athletes and how they are met at a Division I university. In this episode we hear about how their academic needs are met. An outstanding former high school and college student-athlete herself, Mary Chris Finnigan combines a love of the energy of sports with an extensive background in academic counseling. She played college basketball at the University of California Santa Barbara. She served as the head girls’ basketball coach for her former high school for eight years, where she also worked as a guidance counselor and...
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Nic Collins: Counseling College Athletes and Advocating for Mental Health Awareness
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
After 18 years working in corporate sales, Nic Collins decided to go back to school to pursue a graduate degree in counseling. He is now working in an internship for the athletics department at the University of South Carolina, where he is one of many resources on the Mental Health and Performance Team for student-athletes. Nic also advocates for mental health, writes, and is a talented musician, coach, and guest speaker. He is one of the two dynamic hosts of , which explores topics around personal growth and inspiration and how different people find them. In this episode, Nic shares about why...
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Sydney Parks: The Transformative Effects of the Flipped Classroom Model
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
Sydney Parks completed a Masters program in Ecological Economics with a Flipped Classroom model at the University of Edinburgh last year. Before completing this program in Scotland, Sydney had earned a Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego, and worked as a Synthetic Biology researcher in the biotechnology sector. In that work she encountered scientists who had an in-depth understanding of their subject area, confidence from that deep understanding, and fluidity in the way they could speak about it. She realized that the way she learned in...
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Dr. Bryan Hale: What's possible when looking at school culture through a wellness lens
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
In addition to hearing from people who are currently inside the classroom, I enjoy meeting, and hearing the stories of, people who are using their experiences and skills to try to make the educational system better in some way. Dr. Bryan Hale's career in the educational system spans over 25 years. He has been a high school math teacher in Ohio, an assistant principal in North Carolina, and a Principal of a K-8 school and then a charter high school in the Chicagoland area, where he considered becoming a superintendent. His doctoral research on Holistic Wellness in Education and the six domains...
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Amanda Wolff: UHSAA Girls' Cross-Country Coach of the Year 2024
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
We’re ending Season 2 with insights from a statewide-recognized coach of the year. Amanda Wolff is an English teacher and the Head Coach of both the Girls’ and Boys’ Cross-Country and Track programs at Cyprus High School, a Title I school in the Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah. Under her leadership over the past five years, the team has grown from 55 participating athletes to 130. The Girls’ Cross-Country team took Regionals last year, and the team placed 6th overall in the State. The Girls’ Track and Field team took Regionals for the first time since 1978! Amanda was...
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Rachel Bartholomew: Impacting Student Learning through Instructional Coaching for Educators
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
Rachel Bartholomew is currently an instructional coach for both an elementary school and a Title I junior high school in the Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah. Before that Rachel taught reading for 20 years in all three levels of school: elementary, middle school/junior high, and high school, and in three different states: North Carolina, Washington state, and Utah. Rachel also coached volleyball, basketball, and track and field at the junior high level for 10 years. In this episode, Rachel shares about what has kept her going through 20+ years as an educator. She discusses...
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Jimmy D. Hart Presents the R.A.I. (Respect/Affirmation/Inclusion) Framework
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
Jimmy D. Hart, Chief Empowerment Officer of Hart Global Industries is an author, coach, speaker and trainer. He has been involved in education for 31 years, in roles ranging from teacher and coach, to site administrator, middle school and high school principal, and district administrator. Now he uses his extensive experience to help school districts put the R.A.I. framework, which stands for Respect, Affirmation, and Inclusion, into practice. He offers leadership training and coaching for adults, and is committed to facilitating consistent and equitable access to resources and...
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Hailey Anderson: Providing and Fighting for Safe Spaces
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
Hailey Anderson is a registered nurse at the University of Utah hospital. She is a parent of three kids in the Salt Lake City School District and a fierce advocate for their human rights. I reached out to Rainbow Club of SLC after hearing about it from an educator at Bonneville Elementary School in the Salt Lake City School District. Hailey helped start an Equity Committee at Bonneville about four years ago, and then, in partnership with one of the elementary teachers, helped start Rainbow Club of SLC there. As described on their website, Rainbow Club “is a safe supportive space for young...
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Coach Dru Jones: "It's about the love that you give to another person"
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
Coach Dru Jones is a special education teacher in English and biology, the Head football coach, and the Head Unified Sports Coach at Viewmont High School in the Davis School District in Utah. He has been teaching since 2008 and was recognized recently as the Davis School District’s Teacher of the Year. He was also named one of the finalists for the 2025 Utah Teacher of the Year. In this episode Coach Dru shares about the challenges he faced throughout his own education, and how that motivated him to break the cycle and be the first on his father’s side to graduate from high school and...
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Carrie Miller: From Meeting Resistance to Building Relationships and the Challenges and Rewards of Educational Consulting
Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education
Find out more about the role of an educational consultant through this conversation with Carrie Miller, who is a Vice President for MGT of America in their Education Solutions Group, on the team for Academic Transformation. Carrie was an educator in a number of roles for 12 years, from an English and French teacher, to a Dean of Students, to a Director of Admissions, at various school settings, including rural, urban, Title I, and independent schools in the Pacific Northwest and Colorado. Since 2015 she has been working in management consulting. In 2022 she earned her doctorate of education...
info_outlineRebekah Cummings is a candidate for Lt. Governor of Utah, running on Brian King’s ticket for Governor in November. She brings a unique perspective to another facet of the educational system through her experiences as a librarian, educator, and advocate.
In this episode, Rebekah shares about the progression of her involvement in local advocacy to state politics, and the rewards and challenges of advocacy work. She provides an insider perspective of the history of book banning legislation in the state of Utah. She describes the value of assuming good intentions in other people, and the importance of “communicating across the aisle” in the State legislature. She and Ramira discuss what we lose when we limit the stories we read, and how finding an issue you care about and feel you can make a difference in can be an “antidote to despair” in politics. Rebekah offers suggestions for how we can get involved in the school library book ban issue, through organizations like letutahread.org, or how we can support libraries in general, through organizations like EveryLibrary.
Rebekah has been a librarian for 15 years, for the last 11 at the University of Utah Marriott Library, where she is the Director of Digital Matters, a lab that provides resources to students and educators in how to use technology with a humanities approach. Rebekah served as the President of the Utah Library Association (ULA) in 2018-2019, which led her to build ties between the Association and the Utah legislature. She is currently Chair of the Utah State Library Board, Co-Chair of the Advocacy Committee of the ULA, and a founding member of the Let Utah Read Coalition. Rebekah views libraries as democratic institutions that serve our youngest populations all the way through to our eldest, invaluable resources, and community centers. K-12 school librarians have a vital role in connecting readers with books they will love, helping young readers gain literacy skills, and showing students how to research. At the college level, that work continues as librarians educate both students and educators on data management, information literacy, research, and technological issues.
Find out more about Brian King and Rebekah at their campaign website: kingforutah.com
Support Rebekah with the "Readers for Rebekah" virtual fundraiser on Thursday, 8/29, from 6-7pm. Here is the link where you can donate to attend.
Since this episode was recorded on the 16th of July, there has been news coverage on how Utah is implementing the new law Rebekah talks about, HB29:
It’s official: these 13 books are now banned from all public schools in Utah
More states are passing book banning rules. Here’s what they say.