At the Learning Counsel’s Learning Futures & Tech Media Meeting in Yorktown Heights, NY, hosted by PNW BOCES, one of the day’s standout speakers was Lisa Weber, recently retired Assistant Superintendent for Instruction at Suffern Central School District.

Lisa opened her session with a deeply relatable story about leadership, vulnerability, and the power of collaboration in the face of fast-moving change.

“In my case,” she began, “I’m going to take you through how giving permission and collaboration sparked our AI implementation and innovation in Suffern.”

That theme—permission and collaboration—became the heartbeat of her message. Lisa described how, in the spring of 2023, she suddenly realized she had fallen behind the curve on AI. “ChatGPT had come out at the end of 2022, and I just missed it,” she said. “I had this real ‘uh-oh’ moment—I knew nothing about it, and I’m supposed to be leading instruction and learning.”

Rather than panic, she turned that realization into action. With her husband newly serving in the state legislature and her home life busy with three teenagers, Lisa carved out the summer of 2023 to dive deep into understanding AI and its implications for teaching and learning. Her journey began at the Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES Leadership Conference, where Jonathan Costa’s session on “vulnerable tasks and durable tasks” gave her the framework she needed to move forward.

But Lisa’s breakthrough came when she recognized she couldn’t—and shouldn’t—learn it alone. She leveraged one of her leadership “tricks”: using summer curriculum work as an opportunity to bring teachers along in the learning journey. Opening the opportunity districtwide, she formed a small but diverse team—eight educators ranging from primary special education to AP chemistry—who spent the summer exploring AI together.

That spirit of shared curiosity and permission to learn—and even fail—became the foundation for Suffern Central’s AI innovation efforts. Lisa’s story isn’t just about technology; it’s about creating a culture where learning leaders lead by learning first.

As we roll the video, listen for how Lisa turned personal urgency into organizational opportunity, and how collaboration became the key to bringing AI thoughtfully and meaningfully into her district’s classrooms.