Strategist / Systems thinker / Facilitator / Scholar

IDEAS THAT CHANGE SYSTEMS.
SYSTEMS THAT CHANGE LIVES.

Designing systems that grow people, not just programs.

Bring me into the roomSee how I think

I work with education leaders and teams navigating change to connect what’s fragmented—and build conditions where people can thrive.

Krishawna Goins smiling, wearing glasses and pink earrings
Imagination. Conviction. Possibility.
IMAGINATIONSYSTEMSIMPACTREGENERATION
The ethos

WHERE IMAGINATION
BECOMES INFRASTRUCTURE.

People can become more.
So can the systems we build.

  1. 01

    Imagine.

    See beyond what exists.

  2. 02

    Connect.

    Build the conditions for possibility.

  3. 03

    Change.

    Make the difference matter.

  4. 04

    Regenerate.

    Leave more capacity than you found.

Imagination / Systems / Impact / Regeneration
Learn. Renew. Imagine again.

Krishawna Goins facilitating a discussion with workshop participants
IDEAS COME ALIVE IN THE ROOM.Listening. Connecting. Building together.
How I approach the work

LOOK DEEPER.
BUILD DIFFERENTLY.

A different question.
A clearer picture.
A meaningful way forward.

Five instincts that guide the work
01Find the deeper question.
CURIOSITY BEFORE CERTAINTY

Who experiences the problem? What keeps reproducing it? I listen beyond the symptom to understand the system.

02Connect what’s disconnected.
THE WHOLE SYSTEM IN VIEW

Bring lived experience, scholarship, and organizational realities into one conversation. Start with the people closest to the challenge.

03Make complexity useful.
RIGOR WITH CLARITY

Turn ambitious ideas into clear frameworks, thoughtful questions, and resources people can actually use.

04Move the room.
INSIGHT INTO ACTION

Create space for honest thinking and shared discovery. Send people forward with energy, tools, and direction.

05Build beyond the launch.
CAPACITY THAT LASTS

Design for shared ownership, adaptability, and renewal—so progress continues and people grow with it. Human flourishing is part of that design: people need the conditions to sustain their energy, well-being, and sense of purpose.

Discuss your challenge on LinkedIn
The approach in action

See the pattern.
Build the connection.

01 / Student lifecycle design

From separate moments
to a connected ecosystem.

The challenge
Recruitment, engagement, and student success can become disconnected experiences.
The approach
Connect inquiry, enrollment, belonging, career readiness, and alumni relationships through one student lifecycle.
What it makes possible
A shared framework that makes connections—and opportunities for institutional partnership—visible.
20+ experiences built in 10 months900+ students and families engaged

Across my recruitment and engagement work.

02 / Educator facilitation

From the immediate fix
to a longer view.

The challenge
Urgent problems can keep a team focused on getting through the moment.
The approach
Use shared inquiry, practical frameworks, and resources to examine the conditions beneath a challenge.
What participants took away
Workshop feedback describes renewed energy, tools to put into practice, and a stronger focus on long-term solutions.
Read participant reflections
Speaking & facilitation / Bring the question

IDEAS WORTH
PUTTING IN THE ROOM.

Think together. See differently.
Leave ready to act.
For education conferences, leadership teams, and organizations rethinking how people learn, belong, and thrive.

Krishawna beside her Ignite Your Impact: Early Career Educators as Changemakers presentation at the 2025 NEA Leadership Summit
Bring the question.
Let’s move the conversation.
National stages. Practical insight.

A returning voice
in educator leadership.

Six appearances at the NEA Aspiring Educator Conference, two at the NEA Leadership Summit, and one at the NEA Conference on Racial and Social Justice.

Featured session · 2025 NEA Leadership Summit
Ignite Your Impact: Early Career Educators as Changemakers

What audiences work toward
  • See the patterns beneath a challenge.
  • Connect evidence with lived experience.
  • Leave with tools and a clearer next step.
KeynotesWorkshopsStrategy sessionsFacilitation
01Rethink the System. Reimagine the Future.

Look beyond familiar answers to the patterns and structures shaping a challenge. Explore how a different question can open a different path forward.

02Belonging Is Infrastructure

Why belonging must move from a stand-alone initiative to the way an organization works. Explore how participation, trust, and shared leadership shape what people can contribute.

03Making Complexity Useful

Bring rigor and clarity to complex ideas. Translate insight into frameworks, questions, and resources that help people make decisions and take action.

04From Initiative to Ecosystem

How organizations stop launching disconnected programs and start building connected systems. Align people, purpose, and practice around the experience you want to create.

05Building Capacity, Not Dependency

Explore how shared ownership, learning, and renewal help change last. Design for people to grow into the work—and for the work to evolve with them.

06Flourishing by Design

What would change if human and educator flourishing were a design priority? Explore how belonging, agency, meaningful work, and collective care can shape systems that sustain people’s capacity to grow and contribute.

Discuss a session on LinkedIn
What people take with them

NEW PERSPECTIVES.
LASTING POSSIBILITY.

Reflections from workshop participants and a curriculum collaborator.

LONG-TERM THINKING
“Valuable insight into solving problems with a long-term vision, rather than an immediate Band-Aid fix.”
Workshop participant
ENERGY INTO ACTION
“I loved this session! I feel energized and renewed, and I’ll be using the tools and resources provided.”
Workshop participant
COLLABORATION THAT COUNTS
“Your insights and commitment have been essential to strengthening and improving these materials for students.”
Curriculum developerConsulting collaborator

Feedback edited for clarity.

Krishawna smiling beside an NEA Leadership Development banner
Bringing warmth and conviction into the work.
Krishawna smiling with a group of participants gathered in a classroom
Alongside the people who make change possible.
What I believe

THIS IS THE
STARTING POINT.

01 / The foundation

Belonging isn’t a program.
It’s infrastructure.

02 / Follow through

Recruitment without retention is unfinished work.

03 / The whole experience

Student engagement is part of how college works.

04 / Shared authorship

The people closest to a system should help design what comes next.

05 / Human potential

Grow people.
Not just programs.

06 / Regeneration

Lasting change builds the capacity to keep changing.

Research & inquiry

FROM SCHOLARSHIP
TO SYSTEMS CHANGE.

My doctoral inquiry explores belonging, agency, leadership, and the conditions that help students and educators thrive—connecting scholarship with the systems people experience every day.

D.Ed. doctoral candidate / Penn State / Expected May 2027
Scholarship

Question what is.

Practice

Learn from real lives.

Systems that are human.
Change that can renew.

Human & educator flourishing

Systems should sustain
the people who sustain them.

My work around flourishing asks what makes it possible to belong, exercise agency, find purpose, and keep growing. For educators and the communities they serve, I focus on the conditions that sustain well-being, relationships, and the capacity to contribute over time.

BelongingAgencyPurposeRenewal
What would we build differently
if belonging were the starting point?
Questions I keep returning toEducational equityHuman & educator flourishingEducator sustainabilityPeer learningOrganizational change
Meet Krishawna

I have a thing for
better questions.

BIG IDEAS.
HUMAN SYSTEMS.
PINK, OBVIOUSLY.

I see the space between
what is and what could be.

I bring warmth to demanding conversations, structure to ambitious ideas, and a deep belief in what people can become.

Nearly a decade of leadership across public education, higher education, national association governance, and community partnerships has shaped how I listen, connect, and build.

A perspective shaped across
  • First-grade classrooms
  • Higher education
  • NEA Early Career Educator Caucus leadership
  • Facilitation & doctoral inquiry
Leadership & practice
  • NEA Early Career Educator CaucusVice Chair, 2024–present · Advancing early career educator voice, leadership, and professional sustainability
  • Penn State College of Education Alumni Society BoardBoard Member & Chair, Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee, 2022–present
  • Penn State College of EducationRecruitment & Student Engagement Officer, 2025–present · Connecting recruitment, belonging, leadership, and lifelong engagement
Scholarship & credentials

The Pennsylvania State University
D.Ed. doctoral candidate · Expected May 2027
Emphasis: higher education and workforce development
M.Ed., Curriculum & Instruction — Social Studies Education
B.S., Elementary & Early Childhood Education
Minor: Education Policy Studies

Selected appointments & recognition

International Summit on the Teaching Profession
Invited as a guest of the United States, 2023

Virginia Department of Education
Appointed to the Culturally Relevant and Inclusive Education Practices Teacher Advisory Committee, 2020

National Education Association
Nine elected terms as a Representative Assembly delegate · Selected for the NEA Coaching Institute

Penn State College of Education Alumni Society Board
Outstanding New Graduate Award, 2022

Loudoun County Public Schools
Advancing Through Action: Equity Lead Award, 2022

Krishawna in a black dress with a pink scarf on the White House grounds
Big ideas. Human systems. Pink, obviously.
Krishawna smiling with one arm raised, wearing bright pink at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference
Serious about possibility. Full of life.
Speaking / Strategy / Research / Collaboration

WHAT SHOULD EXIST
THAT DOESN’T YET?

Let’s imagine it. Then build it to last.

Tell me about your audience, the question you’re working through, or the future you want to build. Connect with me on LinkedIn to start the conversation.

CONNECT ON LINKEDINExplore speaking topics