A practitioner at the intersection of equity and excellence

Dr. Millicent Borishade has spent nearly thirty years doing the work that others find too hard, in the communities that others overlook, and getting results that others said were not possible.

Before she ever stood in front of a classroom, Dr. Borishade made a commitment to serve. As a member of the Illinois Army National Guard during her undergraduate years at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, she balanced the demands of military training and academic life simultaneously. That discipline, learning to show up regardless of circumstance, to be accountable to something larger than herself, and to lead under pressure, shaped the educator and executive she became.

As a kindergarten teacher in, Illinois, Dr. Borishade learned early that the distance between a learner who thrives and one who falls behind is rarely about ability. It is almost always about access, relationship, and the quality of instruction they receive every single day.

That understanding has driven every role she has held. Dr. Borishade has taught kindergartners learning to read their first words and sixth graders navigating the complexity of adolescence. At Seattle University, Concordia University, Lewis University, and Western Governors University, she stood in front of college classrooms training the next generation of school leaders across traditional, hybrid, and online learning environments. When the director of the educational facility associated with a correctional institution was not able to find anyone to teach a college course, Dr. Borishade made herself available to teach individuals who were incarcerated, because she has never believed that the walls around a person determine what they are capable of learning. That conviction, that every learner in every setting deserves a teacher who refuses to give up on them, is not a philosophy she arrived at in a graduate seminar. It is something she proved, one classroom at a time.

From PreK through 12, Dr. Borishade has led schools, supervised principals, and built systems of learning in some of the most under-resourced communities in the country. Her work has never been confined to a single role or a single institution. Family engagement programs developed under her leadership changed how entire communities related to their children's schools. Children Ready to Learn, an organization she founded, exists for one purpose: ensuring families have what they need to prepare their learners for kindergarten long before the first day of class.

Dr. Borishade holds herself and every leader around her to a simple standard: high expectations, genuine support, and no excuses for either. Her leadership has been shaped by data, by relationship, and by the unwavering conviction that families are not obstacles to student achievement but its most essential partners.

Her philosophy is grounded in a single premise. If learners do not learn the way we teach, we must teach the way they learn. That means meeting families where they are. It means building institutions where every adult refuses to let a learner fail. It means developing instructional leaders at every level who are accountable for compliance and outcomes. It means having the courage to make the right decisions for learners everyday.

A member of the American Association of School Administrators, Dr. Borishade has also served as Former President and Board Member of the Learning Communities Foundation in Washington State and as a board member of Mother Africa, an organization dedicated to supporting families. Her affiliations include Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, and she holds superintendent certification in Missouri.

Dr. Borishade brings to her next role nearly three decades of demonstrated results across a variety of school settings in American public education. Her career spans classrooms, schools, and district offices. Over that time, she has built systems, developed leaders, engaged families, and moved the needle on outcomes that others had written off as immovable.

She is interested in senior leadership opportunities where the mission is student achievement, the stakes are high, and the institution is ready to do the difficult work that meaningful improvement requires. Whether in a school district, a state agency, or a university setting, Dr. Borishade is most effective when she is close enough to the work to shape it and trusted enough by her board or institutional leadership to lead it with integrity and without compromise.

She does not simply believe every learner can achieve at high levels. She has spent more than twenty years proving it.

Dr. Millicent Borishade