The podcast by education leaders for education leaders

Latish Reed and Shades of Gray in Equity Work

Guest(s): Latish C. Reed
Date: 04/21/2025
Run time: 40:10
Season 9, Episode 6

In this impactful episode of the Leaders Coaching Leaders Podcast, Dr. Latish Reed, a trailblazing equity specialist and author of the upcoming book, The Complexities of Equity: Navigating Shades of Gray in Schools and Organizations, shares her unique and deeply personal insights on equity in education, drawing from her tenure as Milwaukee Public Schools' first equity administrator. Through her “shades of gray” framework, she explores the complexities of addressing equity in schools and other organizations, highlighting the transformational power of leadership, moral courage, and intentional action. From her reflections on building shared understanding of key equity concepts to practical solutions for navigating challenging political and organizational contexts, Dr. Reed inspires leaders to leverage their spheres of influence for meaningful change. You’ll also hear heartfelt stories of her dedication to creating better educational outcomes for all students, as well as her personal motivation to make schools work for every child—including her own son. Whether you're leading a school, tackling DEI challenges, or interested in fostering equitable practices, this conversation with Dr. Reed is filled with actionable insights and hope for the future of education. Don’t miss this fascinating discussion, and prepare to think deeply about how we can all do better for our students, staff, and communities!

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Latish C. Reed

Latish Reed has a career that spans over two decades as a college admissions counselor, teacher, teacher-leader, school administrator, assistant professor of leadership, and organizational equity leader. She served as the inaugural equity administrator in a large school district, where she led equity policy development and professional learning to support district-wide improvement. Beyond education, she has shared her expertise with corporate, healthcare, and government professionals, consulting on critical equity issues to foster inclusive environments across sectors.

Learn more about brining Dr. Reed to your school district or organization at reedlead.com

Peter M. DeWitt

Peter DeWitt (Ed.D) is the founder and CEO of the Instructional Leadership Collective, and approaches everything with a learner's mindset. He was a K-5 teacher for 11 years and a principal for 8 years. For over 12 years, he has been facilitating professional learning nationally, and internationally, based on the content of many of his best-selling educational books.

DeWitt's professional learning relationships are a monthly hybrid approach that includes both coaching and the facilitating workshops on instructional leadership and collective efficacy. His work has been adopted at the state level, university level, and he works with numerous school districts, school boards, regional networks, ministries of education around North America, Australia, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the U.K.

Peter writes the Finding Common Ground column for Education Week with Michael Nelson and they host Corwin’s Leaders Coaching Leaders podcast. In 2020 DeWitt co-created Education Week's A Seat At the Table where he moderates conversations with experts around the topics of race, gender, research, trauma and many other educational topics.

Peter is the author, co-author or contributor of numerous books and his articles have appeared in educational research journals at the state, national and international level. His books have been translated into numerous languages.

Michael Nelson

There is no more noble profession than that of an educator was what Michael Nelson’s mom said almost every day while he was growing up. For almost 40 years, Michael has been an educator. His mom would be pleased.

Even though Michael still considers “teacher” as his primary title, he has served in roles of principal, district instructional leader, superintendent, assistant executive director developing professional development for the state of Washington, and currently as the Thought Partner for the Instructional Leadership Collective.

Michael has received many state and national awards during his time as a principal and superintendent. As principal, his school received the National Blue Ribbon Award from the United States Department of Education. As a superintendent, he was named Washington state’s 2019 Superintendent of the Year. During his tenure as superintendent, Michael was elected President of the Washington Association of School Administrators (WASA) by his peers.

Michael Nelson co-facilitates coaching, keynotes, and workshops with Peter DeWitt. Their first book “Leading with Intention” was released in May 2024.