My professional career has bridged research and practice in education. I have spent nearly a decade seeking experience working in policy, research, and the classroom in multiple settings to wrestle with some of the core questions facing children and educators today. My work addresses leadership, creativity, and organizational health in schools: how we can best harness and maximise the potential of creative individuals. Using mixed methods designs to synthesize the views of different groups, recent projects have looked into the effective assessment of childhood creativity, the ways headteacher mentors approach professional culture in elementary schools, and the role of systems of support in serious youth violence and marginalization.