Dawn Lindsley, Assistant CTE Director at the Nebraska State Department of Education

I recently had the opportunity to video call with Dawn Lindsley, Assistant CTE Director for the Nebraska State Department of Education. She has been a teacher, administrator and accreditation coordinator in Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska. This lady has been a part of many aspects of CTE in her career.

Dawn’s continual theme throughout the course of her career is what the best thing is for students. As we discussed the course Dawn’s career has taken, she has repeatedly looked at the needs of the students and how she can meet those needs.

Something I have in common with Dawn is the love of reading. During our conversation, Dawn talked about the Clifton StrengthsFinder series. Her favorite is Steal You Bucket. Dawn encouraged me to take a look at this series and consider taking the quiz to find out where my current strengths lie. Dawn has taken the strengths quiz several times and although her top 10 strengths are never the same, she does have two themes that continue to pop up, those of learner and beliefs.  Dawn also encouraged me to check out the book, Capture the Moments by Chip and Dan Heath, she says that a reader can find many take-aways for the classroom and students. When I looked up the book summary, it asks the question, “Why do certain experiences have extraordinary impact?” I am looking forward to checking out both of these books. I have always wondered why some of my students get more out of a lesson than others.

In addition to reading, Dawn also enjoys listening to podcasts. The two she recommended are Craig Groeshel’s Leadership Podcast and Leadercast. The Leadercast Podcast includes interviews with top notch business and industry people from around the United States, some of whom are famous, others not so famous. Podcasts are a good way

I really enjoyed hearing Dawn’s perspective on the question, “If you were starting your career over, what would you do differently?” Most people have several things they would change, but not Dawn. Dawn says she would not have changed anything, because you learn from every experience you have, everything has built upon itself and if something was different, then she might have missed an experience that got her to the point where she is today.