What keeps international school heads awake at night? What all-important areas of decision-making currently occupy their thoughts? What trends in international education are they focused on? To find out, we again reached out to the very well-connected Laura Light, Executive Director of the Association for the Advancement of International Education.

Laura joined AAIE in 2021, bringing in years of experience working alongside school heads and senior leadership, supporting the critical task of recruiting teachers and administrative talent.

Before joining AAIE, Laura served as the Director of Global Recruitment at International Schools Services (ISS). Before joining ISS in 2007, Laura was an international educator for many years, working in Kuwait, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Singapore, and London, as well as the United States. Her knowledge of international schools is deeply rooted in her upbringing as she is also a Third Culture Kid.

Laura has served on the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children Educational Board and is a member of the Diversity Collaborative. She understands the challenges faced and is a natural community builder and an assertive advocate for quality leadership in our international schools worldwide.

Laura greatly enjoys her work supporting international school leaders and values the interactions and experiences she encounters while traveling, which is her biggest joy. When not on the road, she resides in New Jersey with her partner.

The guiding question for the episode was, “What are international school leaders and directors of regional organizations currently talking about?”

We covered several topics, including:

• Wellness around collective care and action
• Adaptive change
• Generative AI
• Professional Learning
• Regional Organizations
• DEIJ
• Local and global concerns of school leaders
• Schools helping other schools during crisis situations

This episode was recorded on September 25, 2023.

Laura’s Contact Information: LinkedIn

Resources Mentioned in the Episode:
AAIE and Podcast and the New School Project
Global Online Academy
Avenues Online School

Several regional organizations were mentioned, so go to our Resource Library for their links.

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Music: YouTube. (2022). Acoustic Guitar | Folk | No copyright | 2022❤️. YouTube. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOEmg_6i7jA.