Danelle Almaraz: Rebuilding Trust and Reimagining Schools From the Inside Out

When Danelle Almaraz walks into a school for the first time, she doesn’t expect smiles and hugs. What she usually gets is skepticism. Resistance. Fatigue. “One teacher looked right at me and said, ‘Who the F are you and why should we listen to you?’” she recalled with a calm laugh. “I just said, ‘I’m not afraid of the F-word—I taught middle school for 20 years. But I don’t know you yet. Should I be afraid?’”

That moment, and the shift that followed, encapsulates Danelle’s philosophy. After three decades in education—as a teacher, principal, and system-level leader—she now guides schools through transformational change with compassion and precision. Her mission is bold: shift education away from compliance and back toward meaning. “I want teachers to love teaching again. To feel like architects of learning,” she said.

Raised by a single mom and originally trained as an accountant, Danelle’s path to the classroom wasn’t straight—but it was purposeful.

“I was miserable in accounting,” she shared. “I kept getting told, ‘Go back to your cubicle. Stop talking to people.’ But I was tutoring my basketball players in algebra after work and realized—this is what I love.”

That love led her back to school, and eventually, into a national and international role, coaching educators on how to lead from the middle.

Her strategy? Simple, but powerful. Create clarity. Build community. And measure what matters.

Danelle works with schools to co-create an “inquiry question” based on real-time challenges. That might mean chronic absenteeism, student disengagement, or rethinking outdated instructional models. Once a school has its inquiry focus, she introduces a practical framework with four drivers: clarity of focus, shared leadership, collective expertise, and continuous improvement.

“It gives people a structure to move forward. We check in three times a year and ask, ‘Where are we—and what’s the next right step?’”

But the real magic is what happens in the relationships. “Teachers are exhausted. Some have had six principals in three years,” she said. “They’re not resistant—they’re overwhelmed. What they need is trust, autonomy, and a chance to lead.”

Technology plays a key role, too. Danelle created a Schools on the Move chatbot powered by AI to offer 24/7 support to educators—especially those too nervous to ask questions out loud. “They don’t want anyone to know what they don’t know,” she explained. “The bot helps them feel safe. And I can see what’s being asked and adjust it to be more helpful or more inspirational.”

She also leverages AI with students. One class used it to prepare for a Socratic seminar about banning cell phones.

“They said they were more open to counterarguments because it wasn’t about winning—it was about learning,” she said. “That’s the shift.”

Still, not every school transformation goes smoothly. “Some days, I leave crying,” Danelle admitted. “But I’ve learned not to take resistance personally. I approach everything with curiosity. If someone’s defensive, I think—what happened to them that made them feel this way?”

What fuels her now is watching adults grow. “I used to miss the kids, but now the teachers are my students,” she smiled.

“When a teacher calls to say, ‘I’m applying for an assistant principal job—will you write my recommendation?’ that’s when I know this work is multiplying.”