How I Got Here

LOCATION Hartford, CT CHILDREN Niko, 16, and Kaden, 11

Learning to problem-solve holistically and play the long game are often key to success as a working mother, and it’s something Dr. Leslie Torres-Rodriguez has perfected in her 20-year climb toward the role of superintendent to Hartford’s 20,316 students. Migrating from Puerto Rico when she was 9, Torres-Rodriguez experienced the struggles of growing up around poverty and violence in Hartford’s urban center. She dreamed” It turned out the resulting eight-year stint in social work wasn’t a detour at all—it’s how she realized exactly of superintendent she wanted to be. “I firmly believe that for urban students to thrive, there must be an interdependency between schools, families and communities. I saw that in my role in social work and school turnaround efforts.” When the next challenge arrived—growing a family while completing her doctoral degree, this time, the now mom of two learned to ask for help. “I was nursing with one hand and typing my dissertation with the other,” she remembers. What’s been the overall key to successfully changing educational outcomes in some of the country’s most challenged school systems? “The one driver for me has always been my moral imperative. It helps me carry a higher sense of urgency whatever situation I’m in.”