Meet Joanna Belcher | Chief External Impact Officer, KIPP SoCal

We had the good fortune of connecting with Joanna Belcher and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joanna, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
When I was 32, I was diagnosed with aggressive Stage 2 breast cancer out of the blue. At the time, I was principal of the first KIPP Newark elementary school I founded five years earlier; my founding class of kindergarten students were now fourth graders in their last year at our school before transitioning to middle school. Facing the prospect of multiple surgeries, scans, fertility treatments, chemotherapy, and radiation cemented for me how much I loved my job. I negotiated with my oncologist about my schedule, earning her promise that as long as acting as principal brought me joy and energy, I could continue working. With the support (and tough love) of my leadership team, we cut back on some of my before and after-school responsibilities and I trained myself to go home at 5 p.m. and was typically asleep by 7:00 p.m. During those years, I realized a few lessons that I still carry with me every day: I can accomplish so much with efficiency when I implement clear structures and boundaries as opposed to when I’m less intentional about my time. I’m lucky to have health and the opportunity to go out and experience the world, so I maximize every chance to see friends, try new places, and travel. When you love what you do – and can’t imagine the ability to do so being taken away from you – you reframe your work as something you get to do, not that you have to do…and if that’s not my feeling, I should reconsider what I’m doing. I try to lead with love and energy in my personal life and in my work…and when I can’t, that might be a night I go to bed at 8:00 p.m. and try again the next day!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
As KIPP SoCal’s Chief External Impact Officer, I oversee all of our external functions, from development to politics & advocacy to marketing & communications. As a former KIPP principal, Chief Academic Officer, and Executive Director, the external side of the work is newer to me, but I love the opportunity to invest people in KIPP SoCal, work with our families, and partner with our communities. I’m incredibly proud of our families’ advocacy efforts and grateful for a role where part of my job is to amplify our families’ voices. Over the last year, our South LA KIPP families have rallied to rid the community of an hourly motel located between two of our schools on S. Figueroa Street near Manchester. For years, the motel has created safety challenges. Patrons have thrown drugs and sex toys out of windows into our kindergarten garden and our middle schoolers’ playground, including over a high fence we built to protect our kids. Our families witness sex trafficking and solicitation of women happening when they drop off their children at 8:00 a.m. while they are dropping their five year olds off for kindergarten on a daily basis. In late September, our middle schoolers arrived on campus to find yellow police tape wrapping the campus; around 10 a.m. that day, we had to send them home because they still couldn’t access their building due to a shooting that had occurred at the motel the prior evening. Our families said, “Enough is enough.” We organized town halls, created a petition that gathered over 1,000 signatures, organized community clean-ups and a service project to create toiletry kits for survivors of trafficking, and led a protest at City Hall in early June. Throughout these efforts, we partnered with and learned from organizations like United We Stand, Restoration Diversion Services, Volunteers of America, Cool Ass Black Woman, the LA City Attorney’s Office, the Southeast Neighborhood Council, CANNDU Neighborhood Council, Forgotten Children, Inc., CRCD South LA, and the Office of Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson. I’m proud to share that after months of efforts of our families and community, the motel owners are selling the motel to us. Investigations from the City Attorney’s office and our Councilman’s commitment to presenting the motel to City Council for a nuisance property hearing led to this outcome. In our next phase, we hope to collaborate with our community partners to reimagine the use of this space not just for KIPP, but for the broader community. We also hope to continue working to ensure that South Figueroa St., beyond our block, is a safe and beautiful place that reflects the pride and strength of our community.

At KIPP SoCal, we talk with our kids constantly about creating a more just world. We cannot teach our kids to pursue justice and create change if we do not model these efforts when confronted with glaring examples of inequity. In my fifteen years with KIPP and 20 years working in education as teacher, principal, and regional leader, I’ve learned that there is nothing more powerful than a belief in what is possible coupled with the hard work of a team who never gives up.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m newly returned to Los Angeles and love planning packed itineraries when friends come to town so that I can explore the city, too (recommendations welcome!)! I will drive all over for great spots, both staples and new places. I adore Malibu Farm – the food is delicious and the views are unbeatable. Bestia, Gjelina, and Yxta Cocina are favorites, and I’ve recently tried and loved Felix and Mother Wolf (pasta forever!), Pijja Palace, Bar Flores, Gran Blanco, and Saffy’s. I am not a hiker, which may disqualify me as an Angeleno, but I love walking by the ocean in Santa Monica, Venice, and around the Marina. Since our schools are all over the city, and I’m often traveling between our communities, I enjoy stopping at local coffee shops where I can do a few Zooms while caffeinating – some of my favorites are Patria Coffee in Compton and El Cielito Cafe in South Gate. I went to my first LAFC and Lakers games this past year, and can’t wait to check out Angel City. There are always great shows at the Hollywood Bowl, the SoFi Stadium theaters, Greek Theatre, etc., and I enjoy the book talks with Live Talks LA. My mom is visiting in September to fulfill her dream of singing along to the Sound of Music at the Hollywood Bowl.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My mom and dad always taught me the importance of service and community. When I was little and would return from school, my mom would ask me, “What did you do today to make the world a better place?” My dad was a fourth grade teacher in our small Pennsylvania town and devoted so much to his students – coaching intramural sports, running student council, and writing each of them letters when they graduated from high school. We didn’t have a lot of money, but my parents raised me to believe that working hard for your beliefs and showing love and kindness to others matters most. I remember applying for a leadership role on a funding board in college and hearing the feedback, “You want to feed everyone – that’s not realistic.” Over time, I’ve come to see empathy not as a weakness to overcome, but rather as a strength that can help understand individual motivations and needs, pushing a team to connect and find better solutions. In college, I was lucky to have mentors like Dr. Dan Porterfield, Professor Heidi Elmendorf, and Father Raymond Kemp who helped connect my AmeriCorps work at an elementary school in Southeast Washington, D.C. with my academic studies. Their care and mentorship helped bridge the disconnect I often felt between my privileged college campus where students received every opportunity compared to the rundown elementary school filled with brilliant students who were given with broken windows, no pencils, and no math textbooks in full view of the Capitol Building. My former principal in Compton, Mikara Solomon Davis, inspired my journey as an educator by showing how to translate a belief in the excellence inherent in our Black and Latino/a students into tangible school structures that reflect and reinforce that belief. Finally, my KIPP students and teammates inspire me every day. There is nothing more powerful than working with people who refuse to accept the status quo for our inequitable education system and who love our kids and believe in their endless potential. My founding KIPP SPARK students graduated from high school in June, and seeing the way their unique personalities have grown and flourished over the years through challenges and triumphs makes me feel so hopeful about the change they will make in our world.

Website: www.kippsocal.org

Instagram: @ms.belcher

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannabelcher/

Twitter: @joannacbelcher

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jobelcher

Image Credits
Mily Cooper Photograph (only for some of the headshots)