Get to know Erica Murphy!
Erica with her daughters Hadley, Maggie and Tessa, and her husband Tim.
Get to know our team! This month, Jess will be sharing an interview with each of the Hendy team members to help you get to know us better. Click here to read her interview with Jeremy Abarno, and here to read her interview with Rachel Modica-Russell. Next up, Erica Murphy! Erica joined Hendy in fall of 2020, and has led work in both talent and academics, including our work with KIPP Texas and Vista College Prep. Erica is also the fantastic facilitator of our Chief Academic Officer Cohort, and works closely with AI for Equity to support their work to bring school systems leaders together, codifies best practice, and disseminates learning broadly to leverage AI to drive more equitable outcomes for students. Read on to get to know Erica.
You’ve worked on a variety of projects during your time at Hendy. What is one project that has been particularly interesting to you?
I’ve found our work with Urban Community School super impactful. It’s been meaningful because it’s been a multi-year effort with the same group of leaders to refine systems and structures that allow for collaboration and supportive teacher coaching and feedback. It’s a team that is really focused on growth and development, and we’ve been able to support their work to align with common systems, schedules and curriculum to move the school forward. It’s been great to see how their work has evolved over time. The impact of having high quality curriculum and strong practices in internalization, looking at student data, and responding to that data has already made a difference for kids. This year we are moving into supporting tier 2 instruction, which is very exciting.
You and I get to work on UCS together, which I love. Your trips to Cleveland are always a highlight for me – it’s fun to see you IRL every once in a while. What is one accomplishment during your time at Hendy that makes you proud?
I am very proud of the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric. I believe it’s a strong document that outlines an essential vision for teaching and learning. I learned a ton in the process of creating the rubric. I worked with high performing organizations to identify what they care about, and got to draw from research and thinking of smart people about what makes good teaching work. It was exciting to distill that learning in a way that names good teaching and learning clearly, and helps leaders develop good teaching. I’m proud of what we created.
It’s been so gratifying to get such positive feedback on the rubric; you should be very proud of that work! What’s your favorite part about working with the Hendy team and our clients?
The team is collaborative, fun, smart, and experienced. They are always willing to help with feedback, input, resources, and ideas to make work better. It’s fun to have the flexibility of a consultant job, while having the benefit of a strong team. In terms of our clients – before I came to Hendy I worked at one organization for almost a decade. I was engrossed in the culture and our own systems and ways of doing things. In my work with clients, I love having the opportunity to get a birds eye view of all the different structures, approaches, ways of work that there are across systems sizes and types. It gives me so much more insight into how to do this work well in all the ways people can approach and solve problems.
What might people not know about you?
My favorite things to do are read, run, and play poker.
I love to imagine you in a casino wheeling and dealing. Working in education can be difficult – what keeps you going?
Growth: seeing the growth of people I work with, and my own growth. I relish getting to work to increase student outcomes, and celebrate with our clients when we do. It’s exciting to see an increase in alignment towards an organizational vision. I just deeply believe in consistent support and feedback. I think people are happy when they’re growing, and I’m happy when I’m growing. This job gives me the opportunity to support others to grow as I grow.
Thank you, Erica, for sharing more of yourself with me! See you soon in Cleveland 🙂