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The Superintendents to Watch award recognizes up to 25 school district leaders each year who have fewer than five years of experience as a superintendent and who demonstrate dynamic, fast-paced leadership with strong communication at its core.
Dr. Karen Gagliardi, the first female Superintendent of the Lakeland Central School District, is a dynamic leader who exemplifies a commitment to excellence and visionary leadership. Since stepping into her role, she has set a powerful example of what it means to lead with high expectations, holding every department accountable for fostering an environment that values leadership, creativity, accountability, and integrity. As a leader, Dr. Gagliardi understands the power of communication in shaping and strengthening the wider school community. In her first few years as superintendent, she has embraced innovative communication strategies, setting a standard for engagement, transparency, and collaboration. Her effective use of communication tools has revolutionized the district's engagement with students, staff, and families. Dr. Gagliardi places great importance on highlighting district goals and initiatives through media channels and ensures transparency in decision-making and strategic planning, keeping all stakeholders informed, heard, and valued in shaping the district's future.
Dr. Gagliardi’s use of communication technology has been particularly transformative. By leveraging digital platforms to keep the school community connected, she ensures timely updates, accessible resources, and opportunities for engagement. Her strategic use of these tools allows for swift and transparent communication, ensuring that the district can respond to challenges and celebrate successes in real time. From interactive newsletters to social media campaigns highlighting student achievements and district initiatives, to the most recent launch of Lakeland’s Latest Podcast series, Dr. Gagliardi's leadership reflects a modern approach to keeping her community informed and involved.
In addition to external communication, Dr. Gagliardi places a strong emphasis on internal communication within her leadership team. She makes certain the district's mission and core values are clearly communicated and exemplified across all departments. Regular meetings with the administrative team and cabinet focus on discussing leadership books, aligning with district goals, and fostering a culture of shared responsibility. Monthly community newsletters and weekly staff and Board updates demonstrate Dr. Gagliardi’s commitment to clear, consistent communication. This emphasis on communication as a leadership tool ensures that all staff members feel supported, empowered, and clear about their roles in advancing the district’s vision.
Beyond her district, Dr. Gagliardi is recognized as a thought leader in the region. She regularly shares her insights on effective communication and leadership at conferences and workshops, including at Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES, where she has been honored for her contributions. Her recent PNW BOCES recognition as the Profile of Success for Management Services further highlights her influence and the respect she commands in the educational community.
Dr. Gagliardi’s visionary approach to communication and leadership is shaping the future of Lakeland, ensuring that the district remains responsive, inclusive, and forward-thinking. Her ability to use communication technology to engage her community and foster transparency makes her an ideal candidate for the National School Public Relations Association’s Superintendent to Watch recognition. In just a few years, Dr. Gagliardi has set a new standard for how superintendents can lead with communication at the heart of their success, building stronger, more connected school communities.
Dr. Karen Gagliardi’s leadership has transformed the Lakeland Central School District through a highly effective communication program implemented across all levels of the district. Her approach emphasizes transparency, engagement, and consistency, key elements that drive the district’s public relations strategy. By leveraging both traditional and digital media, she ensures the district’s messages are timely, relevant, and impactful.
A cornerstone of Dr. Gagliardi’s strategy is the communication program implemented with the Director of Communications. By placing this role within her Cabinet, Dr. Gagliardi ensures communication is a key factor in district-wide decision-making and goal implementation. This top-down approach reflects her belief that communication is not an afterthought but central to the district’s mission.
To further enhance communication, Dr. Gagliardi has introduced a district-wide media plan, which she has shared with all eight schools. This ensures a consistent and unified approach to celebrating the district’s milestones and achievements. A notable success of this initiative has been the professional redesign of both the district and individual school websites, improving a unified online presence and accessibility for the community. In addition to this, the communications program implemented under her leadership includes a transition from weekly staff-only newsletters to a monthly newsletter for the entire Lakeland community. This initiative keeps families and stakeholders informed, with updates, photos, and links to social media, bridging the gap between the schools and the broader community. Furthermore, she maintains a weekly communication flow with the administration and Board of Education to ensure alignment on district goals.
Recognizing the importance of multimedia, Dr. Gagliardi has led the district to embrace video as a key communication tool. A district videographer was hired to produce weekly content, welcome-back videos, holiday messages, and end-of-year updates, all of which showcase the district’s achievements. Additionally, video messages promoting key initiatives like the district budget and facilities updates encourage community awareness and engagement. Videos have proven to be a highly successful tool in the strategy to engage the Lakeland community, as highlighted in the weekly Media Report that Dr. Gagliardi shares with the Board of Education as part of her weekly updates.
Dr. Gagliardi’s communication strategy also extends to local media. Under her leadership, the district operates a TV station and publishes a monthly feature in the local chamber of commerce newsletter. She recently launched a podcast, where she interviews staff, students, and community members, offering a new platform for engaging members of the school community and sharing district successes.
Through this dynamic communication program implemented across multiple platforms, Dr. Gagliardi has created a more transparent, engaging, and unified district. Her leadership ensures that every communication effort reinforces Lakeland’s mission and vision, creating a strong sense of community and purpose.
Dr. Karen Gagliardi, Superintendent of the Lakeland Central School District, exemplifies the power of communication as a critical tool for leadership and strategic planning. Under her guidance, communication is not just about sharing information; it is an essential process to engage stakeholders, align district goals, and foster transparency. As Lakeland moves forward in creating its district strategic plan, Dr. Gagliardi has prioritized the use of comprehensive communication strategies to ensure that the voices of all community members are heard and integrated into the decision-making process.
A key initiative in this effort is the district’s use of ThoughtExchange, a platform that allows stakeholders—parents, staff, students, and community members—to provide real-time feedback on various topics. Dr. Gagliardi has emphasized the importance of this platform as a way to invite diverse perspectives into the conversation about Lakeland’s mission, vision, core beliefs, and future goals. ThoughtExchange enables community members to share their thoughts, while also providing a collaborative environment where participants can engage with each other’s ideas. This creates a district-wide dialogue that is dynamic, inclusive, and data-driven.
Dr. Gagliardi’s approach to strategic planning goes beyond simply gathering feedback. She has embedded communication deeply into the fabric of the strategic plan by including Lakeland’s Director of Communications on the strategic planning team. This decision reflects Dr. Gagliardi’s understanding that effective communication is vital not just for sharing the plan but for ensuring that the process of creating the plan is transparent, collaborative, and reflective of the community's input.
To that point, the Director of Communications has been tasked with highlighting the importance of participating in ThoughtExchange and other feedback opportunities, ensuring that all voices are heard. This effort includes targeted outreach through the district’s monthly community newsletter, social media, and direct outreach to families, staff, and students. By prioritizing communications in this way, Dr. Gagliardi is committed to a strategic plan that will be a living, breathing document shaped by those it impacts the most.
Dr. Gagliardi’s leadership extends beyond digital platforms. She consistently attends district and community events to engage in face-to-face conversations with stakeholders. Her commitment to “management by walking around” ensures she remains visible and accessible, regularly visiting school buildings and offices, where she listens to the concerns and ideas of students, staff, and families.
By making communication a cornerstone of Lakeland’s strategic planning process, Dr. Gagliardi is creating a plan that not only meets the needs of the district but also reflects the hopes and aspirations of its entire community. Her vision for Lakeland is one that is collaborative, transparent, and responsive, ensuring that the district continues to grow and thrive while staying true to its core mission of educational excellence.
Dr. Karen Gagliardi has made her mark as an outstanding superintendent at the Lakeland Central School District through her proactive, visible involvement in the district’s communication efforts. Her approach has redefined how a school leader engages with the community, establishing new channels of connection while fostering a culture of transparency, collaboration, and unity. As a result, her leadership has positioned Lakeland as a district that prioritizes communication as a cornerstone of educational excellence.
One of Dr. Gagliardi’s most notable initiatives is the creation of Lakeland's Latest, a podcast that coincides with her monthly community newsletter, which she just launched to connect more deeply with the community. In this new and innovative format, Dr. Gagliardi interviews key figures, including Board of Education members, the local Chief of Police, PTA presidents, and other student and community leaders. The podcast is designed to give the community direct access to important conversations, updates, and insights into district decisions and plans. By bringing district news to life through engaging, accessible discussions, she ensures that families, staff, and community members stay well-informed and feel connected to the district’s leadership. The podcast offers a fresh, modern platform for communication and transparency.
Dr. Gagliardi’s presence in schools is also a hallmark of her leadership. She is a visible presence across the district, practicing “management by walking around.” Each week, she visits schools to meet directly with staff, students, and faculty. This hands-on approach allows her to stay engaged with the day-to-day workings of each school, fostering direct communication with educators and students alike. Her regular site visits ensure she remains attuned to the needs of the district, further strengthening her bond with the Lakeland community.
Her involvement doesn’t stop within the school walls. Dr. Gagliardi is an active participant in community events, regularly attending sporting events, multicultural nights, and local gatherings like the town Fall Festival and Chamber of Commerce galas. She also attends PTA meetings during budget season, ensuring that families and taxpayers are kept informed on important district decisions.
Regionally, Dr. Gagliardi is a respected voice among her peers, participating in the Superintendents Roundtable and presenting on leadership topics through her BOCES partnership. This regional involvement further enhances Lakeland’s role in broader educational discussions.
Dr. Gagliardi’s leadership style, characterized by her innovative communication efforts, hands-on approach, and commitment to community engagement, makes her a standout candidate for NSPRA’s “Superintendents to Watch.”
B.A. - Mississippi State University; MPA - University of Georgia
I believe school PR/communications is what I was born to do! One of the biggest decisions a parent can make is where to send their child to school, and it’s an honor to share with our parents the engaging work that their children are doing under the guidance of world-class teachers and leaders. On any given day, in any given school, there are many stories to be told and I take that charge seriously. As school communicators played a key role in COVID-19 communications, storytelling was more important than ever – not only did I share information with parents about our protocols, but I also made over 80 visits to schools last year and told a variety of stories about how students were thriving with both in-person and distance learning options. I also worked with principals to determine best mitigation practices and helped make those pervasive, because positive action must be the foundation of what we are ultimately communicating. School public relations is incredibly complex and I love that each day brings a new challenge.
My greatest school PR success was completing 11 nationally-innovative school communication audits using a process of research, planning, implementation, and evaluation. I am now in phase two of this project and am attending school council meetings to garner feedback from parents about school-level communication and how I can better support the work of their schools. One of the most significant findings is that as students take more ownership of their learning, they also take more ownership in parent communication. Therefore, next steps are to better prepare parents for this transition and to also determine best practices from exemplar teachers and coaches at the secondary level so we can strike the right balance with parents feeling informed and fostering student independence.
My greatest school PR challenge is overcoming rigidity. Like many PR professionals, I am detail-oriented and a self-described perfectionist. It’s a blessing and a curse to see when something is one pixel off, but the greatest challenge I have faced in my 13 years in this field is to learn to be more flexible. I might have an aversion to Comic Sans or Curlz, but it’s not the end of the world if those are a font favorite elsewhere. What’s more important is the bigger picture – staff and parents feeling well-informed and students growing and learning in positive school cultures. Instead of telling someone their website isn’t formatted properly, I now make a 2-3 minute screencast if I think there’s a quick tutorial I can offer to provide ongoing professional learning. By being much more flexible, I have deepened relationships and become better at supporting the most important job that occurs in our school system: teaching.
My favorite part of my job is the relationships. I often say that there is no substitute for showing up, and that’s why I make so many school visits each year. From getting to hold a gorgeous monarch butterfly to watching a vibrant student musical to seeing 3-D printing in action from engineering students, I have witnessed countless unique opportunities, and these experiences are just a small piece of what our students get to take part in each and every day. If I didn’t take the time to form relationships, I wouldn’t know that what students value is knowing that the photos I take may show up in their yearbooks. I wouldn’t know the myriad of annual activities that teachers do across our schools because I wouldn’t have witnessed them firsthand. I wouldn’t know about the families of our principals or what they believe makes their school unique. All of that is invaluable because at the end of the day and at the end of this career, relationships are what will remain – both professionally and personally.
The communication tool I use the most is Canva! I would be a brand ambassador if they asked! I am not very mathematically-minded and it can be challenging for someone with an eye for good design – but not an eye for rulers and gridlines – to be a graphic designer. However, Canva has made it possible and I am able to create aesthetically-pleasing graphics with short turn-around times. I have trained communication ambassadors at our schools how to use it as well. Right after Canva, the tool I most use is iMovie. I am completely self-taught in videography and using iMovie and Canva together has made me someone who can add “videographer” to their list of expertise.