Interview with Hendy’s Own Erica Murphy: CAO Cohort Facilitator

As we launch another year of our Chief Academic Officer Cohort, we sat down with Hendy consultant and CAO Cohort facilitator Erica Murphy to discuss what makes this professional learning community so impactful for senior academic leaders. Erica brings deep expertise in curriculum, instruction, and leadership development, having previously served as Chief of Curriculum and Instruction at Ascend Public Charter Schools. Her thoughtful approach to facilitation creates the kind of authentic learning environment where CAOs can tackle their biggest challenges alongside trusted colleagues.

Let’s start with the big picture—from your perspective, why is the CAO cohort such a valuable learning community for senior leaders?

The CAO position can be lonely. The opportunity to be in community with other leaders who “get it” and who are facing the same challenges and often doing the same work is invaluable. There’s something powerful about sitting in a room with people who understand the unique pressures and complexities of your role.

That resonates so much. Speaking of what happens in those rooms, what is the session you love most to facilitate, and why?

Strategic planning best processes in January! It’s so important to have good processes and systems to set strategic initiatives in a way that brings people into the process, creates buy-in, and creates clarity for the organization. And starting in January sets people up for success—it’s that perfect timing where you can really think intentionally about the year ahead.

I love that timing aspect. Now, we incorporated coaching into the experience last year—what impact did this have on your approach to facilitation?

It was so helpful to have one-on-one time with individual CAOs to hear how they were thinking about incorporating the strategies and resources from sessions into their own context. Knowing exactly what they were gravitating towards and struggling with helped me plan the whole group sessions in a way that really met their needs. It created this beautiful feedback loop between the individual coaching and our collective learning.

That individualized approach is so valuable. Let me shift gears a bit—can you tell me about the biggest leadership lesson you learned while in the Chief Curriculum and Instruction role at Ascend?

There are any number of good decisions you can make at any different decision point—there is never one right, perfect decision. The important thing is to: one, gather information and stakeholder input; two, consider options; and three, make a decision that you can communicate with compelling rationale. It may be wrong, and that’s okay—you’ll learn from it. But being paralyzed because you want to make the perfect next move doesn’t work, and indecision creates lack of clarity and frustration.

That’s such practical wisdom, especially for leaders who often feel the weight of every decision. As we wrap up, what’s one piece of advice you have for folks in CAO-esque roles?

Get in schools. Get in classrooms. Talk to principals, deans, students. It can be easy to get caught up in the network work, the politics, the paperwork, and so on. But the work is the teaching and learning. What is happening between teachers and students, and is it meaningful? Rigorous? Aligned to goals? Supportive and differentiated for all students? Academically engaging? That’s the most important work.

Perfect advice to end on. Thanks, Erica, for sharing your insights and for the incredible work you do with our cohort members!

Interested in learning more about the Chief Academic Officer Cohort? Reach out to Rachel Modica-Russell (email: rachelmodicarussell@hendyavenue.com) to explore how this professional learning community might support the academic leaders in your network.