Building a Culture of Community Lies at the Heart of the Work Educator and Ed.D. Candidate Kate Liddle Does Every Day

Principal Kate Liddle is extraordinarily proud of the community at Mae E. Reynolds Elementary School in Baldwinsville, New York. Nothing else Liddle has witnessed in her professional life matches the camaraderie she has found there; the staff and families who breathe life into the building go out of their way to help one another. Yet Liddle knows that community should never be taken for granted. It must be carefully nurtured by leaders who not only understand how to build trust, but also how to create opportunities for collaboration. That is precisely what Liddle is growing her capacity to do in Le Moyne’s Doctorate in Executive Leadership (Ed.D.)Program.

This Central New York native has devoted her career to education. Prior to being named principal of Reynolds Elementary, Liddle served as the assistant principal at East Syracuse Minoa Central High School and a high school English teacher. Today she fondly recalls reading John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men with her ninth-graders, guiding them through the prose, answering their questions and inviting them to consider what the work could teach them about human relationships. 

Liddle is an enthusiastic advocate for lifelong learning. When she decided to return to the classroom to earn her doctorate, she was immediately drawn to Le Moyne’s Ed.D. program. Not only is it small and flexible, but it also draws people from a variety of fields beyond education, including healthcare and technology, which has enriched her own learning. The program will provide her with the opportunity to research a topic that has long been of critical importance to her, teacher burnout, which of course impacts students’ experiences in the classroom. What’s more, the Jesuit principle of cura personalis, or care for the whole person, aligns perfectly with the work Liddle does in leading a school community of more than 400 students from a variety of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. 

Whether Liddle is greeting her students as they walk into the building or simply sitting in a classroom and observing, she finds herself drawing on what she has learned from the Ed.D. program so far about everything from community engagement to ethics to developing human capacity. She looks forward to carrying those lessons with her throughout her career, regardless of where it takes her.