Edtech leader Diane Doersch on the mentors who shaped her, the resilience behind every career, and why Beneath the Water moves beyond résumés and titles to reveal the defining moments, values, and relationships behind education’s most influential leaders.
INTERVIEW | by Victor Rivero
For decades, Diane Doersch has been one of the most respected and influential voices in education technology. As a former CoSN Board Chair, current F3 chair, accomplished edtech leader, and trusted advisor to school systems and industry alike, she’s built a career around connecting people, ideas, and innovation in service of better learning.
Now she’s launching an exciting new chapter with Beneath the Water—a podcast that explores what lies below the surface of leadership. Rather than focusing solely on accomplishments, Diane invites listeners into candid conversations with the people shaping education technology today: their defining moments, inspirations, values, and the experiences that made them who they are.
If you’ve ever wondered what truly drives the leaders behind the headlines, Beneath the Water promises to reveal the stories beneath the surface.
You’ve already recorded about a dozen episodes before the official launch of Beneath the Water. Without giving away too many surprises, what themes have emerged from those conversations? What do you think listeners will find most unexpected, and what are you personally most excited for them to experience when the podcast launches?
As of this interview, we have recorded 21 episodes that are now in post-production. One theme that keeps emerging is resilience. Every guest has faced moments when they had to learn something new, adapt to circumstances they did not choose or find the courage to keep moving when the path was not clear.
Their career journeys are all very different, but many of them discovered their strengths along the way rather than beginning with a carefully planned destination. They followed an interest, recognized an opportunity or learned what they needed to know because the work in front of them required it.
‘… these conversations with technology leaders are not really about technology.’
What listeners may find most unexpected is that these conversations with technology leaders are not really about technology. They are about vulnerability, relationships and the people who believed in us before we fully believed in ourselves.
I am most excited for listeners to hear what happens when people feel safe enough to move beyond the polished version of their story. These are not the things you normally hear from a keynote stage or read in a professional profile. They are the stories friends tell each other when they know they will be met with care rather than judgment. I believe listeners will recognize parts of themselves in these conversations and realize that they are not alone in the experiences that have shaped them.
Everyone knows your title and is familiar with your accomplishments. What’s a story from your childhood or early career that most people have never heard—but that quietly shaped the leader you’ve become?
Most people do not know that I was a teen mom. I had a two-year-old when I graduated from high school, and I had two children by the time I finished college. There were not many examples around me of what a young mother could become, so I had to write that part of my story for myself.
When I applied for my first teaching job, one principal was willing to look beyond what might have seemed like a nontraditional background. Principal Richard Nilson hired me to teach fourth grade in the Neenah Joint School District. Years later, he told me that he believed if I could raise two children while earning my degree, I could certainly manage a classroom of 30 fourth graders. He was right.
That experience quietly shaped the leader I became. I learned that people do not always arrive with the background others expect. Sometimes the very experiences that make someone look different are the same experiences that have built their greatest strengths and should not be hidden.
‘Sometimes the very experiences that make someone look different are the same experiences that have built their greatest strengths…’
Since then, I have tried to be the person who looks beneath the surface, notices the promise in someone and gives them the chance they may not yet know how to ask for.
The title Beneath the Water is such a powerful metaphor. If we looked beneath the surface of your own leadership, what core belief, value, or personal experience has consistently guided the decisions you’ve made throughout your career?
Beneath the surface of my leadership is a belief that every person has purpose and gifts that are significant.
I know what it feels like not to fit in. I was a child from Thailand growing up in a small Wisconsin community where few people looked like me. Later, I was a young mother in college whose life looked very different from the lives of most other students. As I moved into leadership, I often found myself in rooms where I was one of the only women or person of color.
Those experiences taught me to pay attention to the person who may feel unseen. They also taught me that someone’s background does not tell you the full story of what they are capable of becoming.
Throughout my career, I have tried to get to know the whole person in front of me. I want to help people recognize the gifts they may not yet see in themselves, then unlock the conditions where those gifts can matter.
When we can see ourselves in one another, we become less divided by titles and backgrounds. We come together in our shared humanness.
‘When we can see ourselves in one another, we become less divided by titles and backgrounds. We come together in our shared humanness.’
Who recognized your potential before you fully recognized it yourself? What did they see, and how did that relationship influence the trajectory of your career?
It took a village to help this teacher become a district technology leader.
Richard Nilson was one of the first, but he was not the only one. Mary Renning, Mary Lofy, Jon Fleming, Mary Pfeiffer, Steve Dreger, Mark Duerwaechter in Neenah and later Michelle Langenfeld and Patrick Plant in Green Bay all saw something in me and encouraged me to keep growing.
Mary Renning, Mary Lofy, and Jon Fleming helped me grow my leadership chops as a teacher. Mary Pfeiffer was the person who moved me from being a “technology leader” on a teacher contract to becoming a Director of Technology. Mark Duerwaechter taught me that leadership sometimes means using your political capital to move important work forward. Steve Dreger helped me understand the operational side of district leadership and all the things that are never written in the job description. Dr. Langenfeld helped me grow as a large district administrator and Patrick Plant helped me deepen the technical knowledge I needed to lead with confidence.
These were not just mentors who gave me advice from a distance. We had real relationships and magic always seemed to follow. We worked together, solved problems and built things that mattered. They trusted me with opportunities before I was always sure I was ready for them and held me accountable for them.
They also gave me honest feedback and expected me to grow from it. In many ways, they built me into the leader I became. I carry a piece of each of them in the way I lead today.
Education technology continues to evolve at an extraordinary pace, but great leadership is timeless. Looking ahead, what qualities do you hope the next generation of education leaders will embrace, and what legacy do you hope Beneath the Water leaves for the edtech community?
I hope the next generation of education leaders understands that this work will always require reinvention. The technology will keep changing, and none of us will ever be finished learning. What cannot change is our responsibility to the people doing the work and to the students whose lives are affected by the decisions we make.
I want future leaders to build workplaces where people feel known. I want them to create the kind of environment where someone can bring their whole self to the work without feeling that they have to hide the parts of themselves that make them different. That matters because the way we lead adults eventually shows up in the experiences we create for students.
‘I want future leaders to build workplaces where people feel known.’
That is also the legacy I hope Beneath the Water leaves for the education technology community. I did not want to create a podcast that only shared interesting stories and then moved on to the next episode. I wanted those stories to become the beginning of a conversation in a community where people could continue learning from one another.
Our Founding Moderators are early- and mid-career leaders who are helping build that community with us. They are not just supporting the work. They are learning what it takes to bring people together and create a space where others can grow.
For me, that is the legacy. I want to give the next generation a place where they can become the leaders they needed earlier in their own careers, then carry that kind of leadership into the communities they build next.
Is there anything else you wanted to surface in this interview that we didn’t yet cover but that bears a word or two?
I started this podcast and community with my family. Over the past year my daughter DeAnna and son in law Brok “summered” at our Wisconsin farm (which turned into fall-winter-and-next-summer-ing, too) to get a break from city life to prioritize health & being in nature. They own a recording studio in Chicago (Friends of Friends recording) and have worked in podcasting & audio engineering previously.
One of the values we prioritize at Beneath the Water is being your whole self, which often includes family, health, and the non-work ways we spend our time. Our house becoming an inter-generational home directly led to this project. It’s a tangible embodiment of our relationship and how we found we could collaborate with each other in our next career stages with the skills we have, and the values we collectively hold. We’re so grateful we get to do this together.
Another thing I would like people to know is that Beneath the Water is seeking mission-aligned sponsors.
Producing a professional podcast and sustaining a meaningful community both require resources. There are costs for editing, audio and video production, technical services, hosting, accessibility, transcription, travel and the platform that supports our community. Over time, I would also like to provide stipends for the people helping lead this work, host live gatherings and create free learning experiences for members who may not otherwise have access to professional development.
The right sponsors will understand that this is not about selling directly to our members. It is about supporting the next generation of education technology leaders and being known as a partner in their growth.
What could be a better investment than investing in people?
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Victor Rivero is the Editor-in-Chief of EdTech Digest and Executive Producer of EdTech Digest’s Future Focus Forums (F3), bringing together edtech companies with top U.S. school district technology leaders for the most effective way to get feedback on new and existing products. Write to: victor@edtechdigest.com
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