Testimonials
Nicole Williams Browning: Partner, Bay Ed Fund
“I can't say enough about working with Bela. She is a skillful, courageous, human centered leader who embodies equity and integrity. I've worked with Bela in two different organizations (Educate 78 and Partners in School Innovation). In each organization, Bela's knowledge of content, leadership, integrity, grace, and liberatory educational lens creates spaces for our organization and region to make consistent and growth. Bela is an incredibly skillful as a coach who develops content that is both personalized for the individual leader, but also provokes growth that supports generalized impact and awareness in the organization.
Bela's courage, deep content knowledge, and integrity creates spaces for individual and organizational Anti Racist leadership to develop and thrive. Her keen awareness, wisdom, and ability to nurture meaningful relationships provides both the safety and stretch needed to create systems where our most vulnerable students and leaders thrive.”
Anita Iverson-Comelo: Principal, Bridges Academy in Oakland Unified School District
“I first met Bela around 2010 when she worked for Partners in School Innovation. As a principal at Bridges Academy, I have worked closely with Bela for the last three years as our Ed78 coach. She has been the best coach and thought partner I have had. She comes in with humility, listens deeply, observes wisely, strives to understand the lived context, asks questions that engender deep thinking and reflection, shares insights non-judgmentally and always with a lens of anti-racism to dismantle systems of oppression to transform schooling for all children particularly children of color. I can honestly say that working in collaboration with Bela has helped transform Bridges putting our school on an upward trajectory. Bela is a gem. She is very conscientious and will be a valuable asset wherever goes.”
Gloria Lee: Entrepreneur, leader & innovator in public education | Advisor to social change leaders | Educator
Bela was a beloved leadership coach. At Educate78, I have had the privilege of supporting her as a coach for school principals and their supervisors – first as part of our School Design Lab, then as part of our direct support to Oakland Unified School District, then in designing and leading our curriculum-aligned Literacy Learning Network pilot. During that time, I’ve fielded many calls from those principals and supervisors pleading for more of Bela’s time! They’ve described with great appreciation how she designs and facilitates adult learning experiences that are caring, student-centered, and antiracist, and how her insight as a coach accelerates their professional growth. Her deep commitment to racial and social justice is informed by a nuanced understanding of both historical trends and current events. She’s also a thoughtful colleague and caring team player. If you are looking for someone who will grow your capacity as an equity-focused school or system leader, Bela would be a brilliant choice!”
Sandra Phillips: Chief of Early Childhood Services, Kidango, Inc.
“Bela and I worked together at Partners In School Innovation for two years and have remained connected through our shared commitment to educational leadership. I have had the privilege of observing her work firsthand and collaborating with her over the years. She is a visionary leader who communicates with clarity, fosters collective commitment, and aligns teams around shared goals to drive meaningful outcomes for every client.
Bela approaches school district partnerships with great intentionality and care, creating the conditions for transformational, high-impact work. Her unwavering dedication to addressing systemic racial inequities in public education ensures that all students, particularly those in underserved communities, have access to high-quality learning opportunities.
An outstanding facilitator of adult learning, Bela is an exceptionally skilled leadership coach with deep expertise across multiple frameworks. She develops high-quality resources and tools that empower leaders to drive results-oriented change. Beyond her professional excellence, Bela is a wise, compassionate, and inspiring collaborator. She is someone I will continue to seek out for her thought partnership, insight, and leadership.”
Jen Corn: Director of School Improvement, Oakland Unified School District
“Bela and I worked together closely to support principals who were leading complex school change processes involving merging two schools, expanding to a second campus, etc. Bela was an invaluable thought partner for me. In particular, I greatly appreciated Bela's expert approach to designing adult learning experiences that always centered equity and married the technical aspects of the work with the human, emotional, interpersonal elements of these efforts. Bela also supported me with the development of a qualitative review process designed to identify evidence of a school's strengths and areas for growth in a number of key areas. Bela is brilliant, kind, and strategic--a joy to work with!”
Rachel Garcia: Co-Founder & CFO, 213 Linden Advisors
“Bela is a highly skilled education leader and coach. In her time at Educate78, she built deep and lasting relationships with principals, district leaders, and team members. Even in difficult struggles and conversations, Bela leveraged her circle of influence to promote conversation and focused on process and solutions never losing sight of Oakland’s students as her most important stakeholder.
She leads and coaches first and foremost with her lens of equity and antiracism in all her work- both internal and external. Bela was able to successfully develop community and an adult-learning space remotely and during the pandemic. This is a true testament to her ability to bring people into the work and develop meaningful relationships that brings out their best.
She also demonstrated innovation and an eye for impact in her work to create a process and structure to provide schools with comprehensive qualitative and quantitative data. She saw a need and leapt to action in designing an evaluation system that lifted up best practices, identified areas of growth. Leaders consistently reference this review as something that pushed them to improve their leadership and schools.
As a colleague, Bela is a great partner who is focused on the mission. She is able to help push conversations towards end goals and keeps equity at the center. If you are considering working with Bela as a coach, for adult-learning development, or as a member of your team, I can say with confidence that ‘yes’ is the best answer to that question!”
Jae, Fusco: Supervising Improvement Partner, Partners in School Innovation
“I have had the pleasure and fortune of being coached and supported by Bela this year. She supports me in my desire to continue to grow as an anti-racist coach and leader. Bela has been an incredible thought partner, interrupter, advocate, and colleague. Her support and encouragement empowers me to take risks, jump into innovation and value others the way she has done in her support of me. Our work together exists above and below the green line - she sees and hears me for who I am and offers me consultation, collaboration and inquiry that pushes my thoughts and actions alike. My work with Bela has, without a doubt, supported me to be a better professional and general human as I continue to navigate the complexities of the world we live in. I’m so grateful to continue to learn with and from her.”
“Belonging is where people co-create the future together”.