Sept. 1, 2025
Episode 42: Seen, Heard, Valued: The Leadership Journey of Jayme Braida, Iowa’s 2025 Elementary Principal of the Year
Send us a text What if the most powerful leadership quality isn't perfection, but authentic vulnerability? Jayme Braida, Iowa's Elementary Principal of the Year and National Distinguished Principal, demonstrates how embracing imperfection revolutionized her approach to educational leadership. Jayme's journey didn't follow a straight path. She "stumbled upon education" after changing majors multiple times in college, yet found herself naturally drawn to leadership roles. Her transformation fr...
What if the most powerful leadership quality isn't perfection, but authentic vulnerability? Jayme Braida, Iowa's Elementary Principal of the Year and National Distinguished Principal, demonstrates how embracing imperfection revolutionized her approach to educational leadership.
Jayme's journey didn't follow a straight path. She "stumbled upon education" after changing majors multiple times in college, yet found herself naturally drawn to leadership roles. Her transformation from struggling classroom manager to award-winning principal hinged on one crucial realization: relationships matter more than rules. After traditional behavior management techniques failed with a challenging class, Jayme discovered that connecting with students personally was the missing ingredient to success.
This philosophy – creating environments where everyone feels seen, heard, and valued – now defines her leadership approach. "A culture can only rise higher than the leader you're becoming," Jayme explains, emphasizing how her own childhood experiences with trauma shaped her commitment to creating safe, welcoming spaces for all students and staff. From dancing on the front lawn with students each morning to openly acknowledging when personal struggles affect her work, Jamie models the vulnerability she hopes to see in her school community.
What makes Jayme's message particularly powerful is her willingness to share her full humanity. When facing divorce, a community member told her, "You can't get divorced. You are leading a school." This unrealistic expectation motivated Jayme to champion authenticity in leadership. Her upcoming book "Seen, Heard, Valued: One Child's Journey from Overlooked to Outstanding" explores how personal challenges prepared her for leadership and shaped her values.
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00:00 - Introduction to Jayme Braida
05:04 - Finding Purpose in Education
09:38 - Transforming Teaching Through Relationships
18:04 - From Trauma to Leadership Values
24:13 - Iowa Principal of the Year
31:30 - Leading Authentically and Imperfectly
36:54 - Advice for Aspiring Leaders
WEBVTT
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Do you show up to your role as an educational leader in a way that is unfiltered and authentic?
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Well, that is exactly what my next guest, Jayme Braida, does.
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She is an elementary principal with 18 years of experience in education, including 8 years in administration administration.
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This year she was named the Iowa Elementary Principal of the Year and recognized as a National Distinguished Principal.
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Jayme is passionate about trauma-informed leadership, equity and creating school cultures where students and staff members feel seen, heard and valued.
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Her journey from fourth grade teacher to literacy coach and now principal is truly inspiring.
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Now let's get to our conversation with Jayme Braida.
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Welcome back to another episode of the Educational Leadership Podcast.
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Today I'm really excited.
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I have an elementary principal of the year from Iowa.
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I know it's Iowa, but, being from Nebraska, we have this little rivalry Her name is Jayme Braida.
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Jayme, welcome to the show.
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Thank you so much.
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Thanks for having me.
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All right, Jayme, I'm going to go ahead.
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I'm going to start you off, like I do every guest to the show.
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Thank you so much.
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Thanks for having me.
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All right, Jayme, I'm going to go ahead.
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I'm going to start you off, like I do every guest on this show.
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What inspired you to become an educator?
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Yeah, that's a great question.
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I don't know if you get this a lot from other people, but I never wanted to be an educator.
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I never wanted to be a teacher.
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I don't know really what I wanted to be growing up.
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I went off to college and I was one of those.
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I changed my major three or four times and my senior year I was sitting here thinking I've got to do something and so I worked at a daycare and decided I like kids.
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So I kind of stumbled upon education and then went into teaching, liked it quite a bit.
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But you know, it's strange because early on I wanted to take on leadership roles and just loved helping people, help kids, and so just did different things with leadership.
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Really it's funny because 18 years into it I look back to my childhood and it just seems like everything that happened maybe to me, everything that I went through, my journey, it all I know it was just ordained Like God's plan was to put me where I am right now and where I've been, and just seeing the impact that I've had on lives, and I just know that there's a purpose for the journey.
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Yeah, no, you kind of hit on some things there, Jayme.
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I think anybody that gets in this profession.
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You get where you're supposed to be.
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It doesn't happen by accident.
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There's positions and openings and things like that.
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You start your career where you're supposed to be and you end up where you're supposed to be because I believe there is a plan for you, for you.
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However, you guys believe this.
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If you believe it's God's plan or Buddha's plan or whoever's plan, you know there's always that plan out there to where you know you're in the right space when you're there.
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So, jamie, talk about teaching, kind of like.
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You know, I believe you're an elementary teacher.
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What grade levels did you teach?
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You know what experiences as a teacher help prepare you to become a educational leader or a principal.
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Yeah.
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So I kind of thought about this.
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I figured you'd ask something similar but so much of, I think, what has prepared me for what I'm doing right now were things that happened in my childhood, through adolescence, through teaching, just my entire journey.
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It's just a connection between those seasons and you know, I spent the entire summer, this summer writing a book, okay, and it's kind of a memoir, and every chapter features leadership lessons at the end and it really made me think back on.
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You know, what was it about teaching that shaped who I am as a leader?
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What was it about my childhood?
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And truly, like, all the experiences, all the people that poured into me, the things that were said, the events, the moments, those have tremendously shaped who I am as a leader.
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But they've also shaped my values and I think you know your values drive your actions and things like that.
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You know it's just a culmination of all the things.
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So, specifically talking teaching, you know I wasn't a great teacher out of the gate.
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I don't think.
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I think I was pretty good.
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I, you know, was jumping into all these different leadership roles.
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I was a great collaborator.
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I was all into technology 18 years ago technology 18 years ago but as far as behavior classroom management, I didn't quite get it.
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I had everything ready.
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I had my clip charts, you know all those things.
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I had read the books and I was ready with my discipline plan and the first three years were pretty easy.
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I didn't really have any challenging behaviors.
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My fourth year I moved to Osco's Elementary.
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It was the biggest elementary in the state and might still be the biggest elementary in the state, and I had a class that was very challenging, a lot of students with behavior plans.
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And my old methods didn't work, like the clip chart didn't work, the check marks on the board didn't work.
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So anyway, the behaviorism, the rewards and consequences, it just wasn't working.
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And so by the end of the year I was just burnt out.
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I was going to leave teaching.
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The principal said what do you want me to do?
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And I said get such and such out of my room.
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I cannot handle her.
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She is so difficult.
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You know it's like one of those kids that you know the whole dynamics kind of change when the kid's gone.
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You're like, oh, not that you don't love all your kids, but just very challenging.
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She and he ended up moving her.
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So the last two weeks of school she was in a different classroom next door to mine and I walked by and just see her coloring and sitting up by the teacher and I would, and I'd ask that teacher, how's she doing in your room?
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She's like, oh, she's perfect for me.
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And I was so mad because I'm like, of course she's perfect for you.
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You're not making her do anything, you've lowered your expectations, so on and so forth.
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Well, fast forward.
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That summer I went to Capturing Kids' Hearts training.
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If you've ever gone through that, it's just a whole, it's not just a bunch of strategies and tools, it's a philosophy, kind of.
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You know, we have to capture kids' hearts before we can have their heads.
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It transformed everything for me and it made me reflect on that entire time that year and how behaviors.
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It wasn't about the discipline and the rewards and consequences, it was that I wasn't forming relationships and making connections with kids.
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And then I thought back on the teacher next door who happens to be one of my best friends and mentors.
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Now.
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I sat with her and I said I'm sorry, I didn't realize what you were doing.
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You were making connections with that student, and so that has just transformed my thinking.
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I'd become the kind of leader and I was the kind of teacher and the kind of leader that I needed growing up, and so that would probably be kind of my biggest leadership takeaway from teaching.
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You bet.
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I mean there's a lot of things you unpacked there.
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Jamie, you talked about something that's really important relationships.
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If you think you can do this job without building relationships, I say good luck, because you got to build those relationships in order for these kids to be successful relationships in order for these kids to be successful.
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So I think you know, I applaud you on being able to, you know, take a step back and reflect on that and be able to say you know what?
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This is something I can get better at.
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I can learn and grow and become a better teacher, but also become, you know, a better leader because of it, and I really appreciate that.
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So you talked about a book you were writing.
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Is that like embargoed information?
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Is this something we can't talk about, or is this something we could maybe let people know?
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You know about your book.
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So I'd really like to talk a little bit about the book and maybe kind of you know what is it about?
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What can it do for people?
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But you know, is it out yet?
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Is it?
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You know?
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Is it on the?
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What can it do for people?
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But you know, is it out yet?
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Is it?
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You know?
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Is it on the shelves or is something that's coming?
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Yeah.
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So it's not out yet.
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I'm not even sure.
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I've never wrote a book.
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You know, I don't know how to.
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I'm going to figure out how to self-publish or whatever I need to do.
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So it's not quite out yet.
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I'm thinking maybe fall, but it is finished with some minor edits that need to be made.
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But again, it starts with my childhood and goes all the way through the current time, really just talks about every season of my life, the events, the people, the things that happened to me.
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I grew up with some trauma, so I talk a lot about the trauma.
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You know I grew up with some trauma, so I talk a lot about the trauma.
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But everything that happened shaped who I am as a mom, as a partner, as a leader, and so there is something to be vulnerable and share those things authentically.
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We can show up better for people, we can give space for them to show up as their true selves.
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And I also think that it's through, like thinking back on my story, my experiences and going through these leadership lessons, and as I was writing I started to realize like all these things have shaped my values.
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I value connections because people connected with me.
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You know.
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I value relationships because I needed relationships desperately and I needed to be seen, and that's actually the title of the book is Seen, heard, valued, because that's what kids and staff need.
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And so my message throughout the book has to do with connections, relationships, seeing people, showing up not perfectly, because again kind of another underlying theme is being imperfect and just showing up as your true self.
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It's more about less about having all the answers and being perfect and more about showing up with intention so that you can connect and lead others well.
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Wow, I think that's going to be something people are going to want to get and so I think coming up.
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I'll follow you on Instagram so I'm pretty sure you'll have some sort of reveal maybe coming up and I'll definitely share that out to my audience when that time comes as well.
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And then, when it does come out, I'll probably link it to the show notes here so people when they hear this episode can can find your book easily.
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So I want to put that in there, but at the same time, this coming down the road people.
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So, with that said, you came, did you go from teacher to the literacy instructional coach or did you kind of do do both at the same time?
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Tell me about that journey when you were doing the literacy instructional coaching, because I believe you had that before you became a principal.
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What was that experience like?
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Yeah, so I had taught for about 10 years and I had only taught fourth, fifth and sixth grade, so upper elementary.
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I knew I wanted to kind of diversify experiences, get down to the lower elementary level and so there was an opening for K-2, k-2 instructional literacy coach and I knew nothing about phonics and phonemic awareness like zero zilch.
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So it's terrifying, but I knew if I was going to go lead a building I wanted to have some knowledge and background in foundational literacy.
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So I became that instructional coach and did that for a year and that was amazing.
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I think that's a great pathway If principals are, if aspiring administrators are thinking about getting into administration, going into a coaching role first.
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It was so helpful so I did that for a year and then got my first principal job.
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You bet.
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With that said, it sounds like you're kind of building your career.
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At first you didn't know what you wanted to do.
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I was kind of the same way.
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I actually went to college to be a physical therapist and then I found coaching football as my gig and that's got me in the education.
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But then you know, becoming a teacher, learning and growing through that process and then the instructional coaching, which is great because that's a good segue into being a principal.
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So what inspired you to come on over to be a principal?
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What was that like?
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Was it a tap on the shoulder?
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Was it encouragement?
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Was it like it's time for me to do this?
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What was that experience like when you decided that I'm going to go down this journey and become a principal of a school building?
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And so I had a principal in college.
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Well, she was a former school principal turned professor, and I don't know what it is, but I've had two super impactful educators in my life, who one was a fifth grade teacher and I became a fifth grade teacher, and the other one was this professor who was a former principal and I became a principal.
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And I remember thinking in my class, as she formed a really good relationship with me, I thought to myself man, when I get out of here I'm going to be a principal because I bet she was an amazing principal and I want to be like her.
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And then you get into teaching and I had all these opportunities in both the districts that I'm taught in to just take leadership roles, and I love that.
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I love helping teachers, I love serving others, I loved getting to learn new things in that role and then share what I learned with others.
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And so I knew immediately I think I probably knew when I got my first job I want to be a principal someday.
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Of course, I waited a little bit and then went.
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I had young kids at the time and so you know, I just knew right away.
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And so did you have to apply to a lot of different positions.
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What was the journey like?
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Just be going through the interview process and get in your first principal shift?
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How did that process go for you?
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And, and you know what was what, what was it like to actually get that offer?
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And what was it like to actually get that offer?
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Yeah, so I applied for about two years before I even got an interview.
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I do think that coaching position looked good on my resume.
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I think that might have helped a little bit.
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I know I was applying for a lot of these bigger school districts in the city in Des Moines and I think they're looking for either they kind of grow their own administrators or they're looking for people with some experience.
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And then, of course, I have kids and so my radius was a little bit limited because I didn't want to move too far from where we were living and move school districts.
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So it took me about two years.
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I got my first interview and got the job.
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So I think overall, I think you kind of hit on something like you'll probably apply for more jobs and you'll get interviews.
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That's a fact, I know.
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Sometimes you have to be willing to move your family and sound like in your position like that probably wasn't a great great thing for you, so you had to be patient.
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So I really applaud that.
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You know, taking two years of apply and then once you had your opportunity, you, you, you nailed it and were able to get that position.
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I know for myself it took me eight times before I got my first principal ship, but each interview led me to the next thing, and so that that's kind of like my journey when I became a principal.
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Then, once you become a principal, it's easier to stay a principal at other places because of your experience.
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Jayme, you kind of accomplished something this past year, that kind of get to be in this fraternity or sorority of principals.
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You became the Iowa Elementary Principal of the Year.
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So I'd really like to know how did you find out you were the Elementary Principal of the Year for Iowa?
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So I knew that some people had nominated me.
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Then it got down.
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It was almost like a year-long process.
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It got down to me.
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Then it got down it was almost like a year-long process.
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It got down to, I think, eight of us and so from there they notified us and we had to fill out quite a lengthy application process with letters and essays and different things, and it was narrowed down to four.
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This would have been in maybe February, march, and with the four of us they did online interviews.
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So there were a group of my peers who interviewed me.
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It's very similar to this situation and the very next day one of the principals who was interviewing me Heather Buckley she was also a principal of the year a few years ago she called me and she said you know, oh my gosh, we loved your story, because of course I share a lot of my story and my journey and I thought, oh, it's the letdown, she's got it.
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Oh, we loved your story.
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But and she said, we'd love you to represent Iowa as the next elementary preschool.
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And I was like, oh, I still get like teary thinking about it.
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So, anyway, that's how that went, and of course I had to get on the phone with my boss, brad Baker, and I called him and said guess who's the principal of the year?
00:16:58.428 --> 00:17:01.250
Yay, so there's a big celebration, you know.
00:17:01.250 --> 00:17:04.651
And then after that came National Distinguished Principal.
00:17:04.651 --> 00:17:08.512
So I received that a few months later.
00:17:08.512 --> 00:17:11.375
So just a lot of great cool things happening.
00:17:11.934 --> 00:17:13.536
Were you able to attend the?
00:17:13.536 --> 00:17:17.576
For you it'd be the NAESP conference out in Seattle.
00:17:18.758 --> 00:17:20.078
I did not attend that.
00:17:20.078 --> 00:17:27.422
However, the secondary administrators were recognized at that conference, the elementary distinguished principals.
00:17:27.422 --> 00:17:36.565
We actually are going to Washington DC in October, okay, and so they fly us out there and we have a big ball and basically a two-day conference.
00:17:36.565 --> 00:17:39.835
They're just kind of celebrate us and then to network and do different things.
00:17:40.527 --> 00:17:42.566
So congratulations on that, that's.
00:17:42.566 --> 00:17:43.530
That's great.
00:17:43.530 --> 00:17:55.253
You'll be, you know, yeah, so with with that being the elementary principal of the year for Iowa, you know what does this mean for you personally and professionally.
00:17:56.396 --> 00:17:56.656
Sure.
00:17:56.656 --> 00:18:03.338
So when I it was my first year as a principal the email came to all of us and it said nominate the principal of the year.
00:18:03.338 --> 00:18:13.108
And I looked at my very good friend who was also a principal and I said I'm going to be elementary principal of the year someday and it was just this big out there dream.
00:18:13.108 --> 00:18:18.017
But I was like I'm going to do it because I'm just going to make, I'm just going to be awesome at what I do.
00:18:18.017 --> 00:18:30.308
So I've tried to do that and I'm just so humbled that that eight year eight I finally get to achieve that Some kind of something I just put out in the universe Now I get to do to achieve that.
00:18:30.348 --> 00:18:35.473
So it's surreal, it's humbling, it means so much both personally and professionally.
00:18:35.473 --> 00:18:42.201
It just feels like a culmination of my story from childhood to adulthood.
00:18:42.201 --> 00:18:50.432
Like I said, the book Seen Heard Valued there's kind of a subtitle which is One Child's Journey from Overlooked to Outstanding.
00:18:50.432 --> 00:18:52.138
It's a story of survival, hope and the power of leadership.
00:18:52.138 --> 00:19:04.489
The award just reminds me so much of why this work matters, why we show up for kids and staff every single day, and it's just kind of a testament to that and what this is all about.
00:19:04.628 --> 00:19:05.872
Awesome.
00:19:05.872 --> 00:19:09.605
So what doors have opened for you since being named the Principal of the Year?
00:19:10.969 --> 00:19:15.959
So I've had a lot of people just reach out and tell me congratulations, which is cool.
00:19:16.605 --> 00:19:24.215
Those, to me, I see as little doors of opportunity to start forming relationships with people, because you never know who's going to help you out on your journey, which has been really cool.
00:19:24.215 --> 00:19:39.845
Getting to make Instagram posts with people I run into at conferences, you know, running into some speakers and just I think when they hear, oh, there's the principle of the ear, it's like, oh, their ears might perk up, you know, or hey, maybe we could connect with one another.
00:19:39.845 --> 00:19:40.865
So that's been really cool.
00:19:40.865 --> 00:20:01.473
But I think for me, the whole entire principle of the year, the biggest thing for me, is that it was a catalyst for me to have the courage to step into this new, the courage to step into this new I don't know step into this new chapter which is doing podcasts and writing my book.
00:20:01.473 --> 00:20:03.900
I probably would not have got that ball rolling Someday.
00:20:03.900 --> 00:20:12.669
I may have, but like, I feel like I'm ready and I could use this as an opportunity to really do that and make it bigger.
00:20:13.373 --> 00:20:14.056
I think that's great.
00:20:14.056 --> 00:20:29.727
I think creating a bigger impact is definitely right in the DNA of principles of the year, because I know a few people I'm not there yet, maybe someday I don't know but my whole podcast is just to highlight people and all the great things you do.
00:20:29.727 --> 00:20:42.240
As a Principal, what is something that you have done that you're really excited about or you're proud of in your leadership over the last you know seven to eight years as being a principal?
00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:44.288
What is something that you know?
00:20:44.288 --> 00:20:47.315
You really say you know what that that is.
00:20:47.315 --> 00:20:48.999
You know why I do what I do.
00:20:48.999 --> 00:20:57.237
That's the kind of impact I want to have on my building and my students and my teachers you have any stories about, you know along those lines.
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