Tristal Watson

Tristal Watson is a doctoral student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) in her second year of the Ed.L.D. program. She is passionate about building up the next generation of leaders across the education sector through intentional mentorship and coaching. Prior to HGSE, Tristal served as a principal in Mississippi where she led community engagement efforts to mobilize and educate parents on best practices in literacy centered on the science of reading. Through the Parent Academy initiative both students and parents received intensive support to improve their child’s reading skills. In addition to community engagement, she led efforts to create more equitable access to the curriculum by expanding technology use and spearheading a “Grow Your Own” initiative which helped to drastically increase the teacher retention rate at her turn-around school.  During her time at Harvard, she facilitated learning for leaders across the world through the Data Wise Institute, Achieving Excellence in Leadership (AEL) Institute, and the Urban School Leaders Institute. She also served as a research assistant for Reach Every Reader, where she partnered with Chattanooga 2.0 to create sustainable partnerships with the Chattanooga-Hamilton School District. She has also led learning as a teaching fellow for several courses and helped with the design of real world simulations to increase opportunities for perspective taking.  Her greatest inspiration comes from her four beautiful daughters: Addyson, Alivia, Amberlyn, and Asha. She strives daily to create a better life for them by creating the conditions for them to be successful and showing them that there are no limits on their dreams.