MESPA State Officer Candidate Profile Name and position: Ashley Farrington, Principal, Birchview Elementary School Running for: Secretary/Treasurer Past MESPA leadership positions held:

Position: President-Elect of West Suburban date of involvement: Summer 2020-Present What will your vision be for the position? My vision will be to maintain the strong excellence of the MESPA organization, while also finding ways to enhance our program to support ALL of our principals. I would like to be an advocate for equity in leadership. I am a firm believer in equity for all and my experiences will help our association move forward. Additionally, I want to advocate for our principals of color and making sure that they are represented in our association. I want to create an affinity space to connect principals of color in our association. I am looking forward to collaborating with other board members to continue to transform our association. How do you envision your role/work as representing ALL members? I will plan on doing more outreach and advocating to make sure that all of our members are represented. I want to hear the voices of our members who sometimes are not heard. I also want to ensure that we continue to find ways to advocate for our work around equity and leading it in our schools. The way that this will be done will be by collaborating with ALL members and giving them a platform to share their voices. What about your past experiences would shape your leadership on the board of directors? I have come to appreciate and become more involved in MESPA. I believe in the organization and the support it provides to our principals. As an aspiring principal, I was accepted in the organization and now I am a principal, I feel like I have a network to lean on. These experiences are exciting to me to help continue the standing tradition of support and networking for our colleagues. It will be my job to work with the board to connect, problem solve, and support our leaders throughout the state.

What ideas would you be willing to share with your legislators on behalf of MESPA and the students at your school? First off, I think it is important to reiterate the importance of education. Now more than ever, we are seeing the importance of school and what it means to our community. On behalf of MESPA and my students, I want legislators to know that our students deserve the best. We must not only acknowledge the hard work of schools, but also support this work in every way possible. I would advocate for more visits from legislators to our schools and MESPA so that they have a good understanding of how to provide the support that’s needed.