Dr. Vivian Ekchian has led equity work at the highest levels of California public education, in systems large enough that the mission can get lost in the machinery. This conversation is about how to keep it from getting lost — and what equitable outcomes actually require from district leadership.
What We Covered
- What equity leadership looks like at the district level versus the school level — and why the strategies that work in one context often fail in the other
- The hardest part of advancing equity work under sustained operational pressure, and how Dr. Ekchian has navigated it
- What it takes to keep the mission visible when the day-to-day demands of running a complex system pull constantly toward operational urgency
- What the research and practice actually show produces equitable outcomes — as distinct from what produces equitable intentions
- Her message to district leaders who are doing equity work in 2026 under conditions of political and institutional pressure
About Dr. Vivian Ekchian
Dr. Vivian Ekchian has served in senior leadership roles across California public education, including at the district and state level, where she has been responsible for equity strategy at a scale that most education leaders never encounter. Her work is grounded in the conviction that equity is not a program or a policy — it is an operating principle that either runs through every decision a district makes or it does not run at all.
Key Takeaway
Equity work at scale fails most often not because of bad intentions but because of organizational structure. When equity is housed in a department rather than embedded in the decision-making architecture of a district, it becomes a parallel track rather than the main track. Dr. Ekchian’s core insight is that the structural question — where does equity live in the org chart and in the budget process — is the equity question.
About Education Unlocked
Real conversations with the superintendents, principals, and district leaders who are changing what is possible in public education. Hosted by Sri Narayanan, founder of Kodely.