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SEASON 3 IS HERE! New Episode Every Wednesday.
New voices, new insights, same mission.
Season 3 explores the future of learning through the people building it.
EPISODE 04:
The Third Path: Discernment, Resistance, and Getting Your Whole School to Move with Ellen Devine
“It is not all in or all out. It is not robbing you of your agency. You always get to make decisions — and in fact, you're being asked to make really tough ones.” — Ellen Devine
Ellen Devine didn't set out to be a school's point person on AI. She set out to be an English teacher who helped students become better thinkers and writers. Those turned out to be the same job.
In this episode of Evolution Stories, Christian Talbot sits down with Ellen Devine, Director of Studies and Chair of the AI Steering Committee at Choate Rosemary Hall, to trace how one school moved from policy whack-a-mole to a values-grounded AI stance that actually held. Ellen describes the committee work that was going nowhere, the outside nudge that reframed everything, and why the word "discerning" became the load-bearing word in Choate's approach to generative AI.
The throughline is something Ellen learned long before AI showed up: lasting change doesn't come from force of will or abundance of evidence. It comes from listening well enough to know what people actually need, and being willing to set your own agenda down when the evidence says to.
Guest Bio
Ellen Devine is the Director of Studies and an English teacher at Choate Rosemary Hall, an independent boarding and day school in Wallingford, Connecticut, where she has spent her career. She holds a BA from Cornell University and a master's degree in rhetoric and composition from the University of Connecticut. Ellen served as Chair of the English Department for approximately eight years before moving into her current administrative role. She chairs Choate's Generative AI Steering Committee, which developed the school's institutional AI stance and accompanying policy framework, and has been part of the school's DEI Task Force work. Ellen participated in MSA's RAIL endorsement program and was a panelist in MSA's 2026 virtual event on AI policy and practice.
Key Topics Covered
Building a values-based AI stance when policy-first approaches stall
What "discerning, informed, and ethical" AI use actually means in practice
How change at the pace of trust applies to AI adoption in schools
The difference between resistant classrooms and truly discerning ones
Lessons from DEI work that transfer directly to leading AI change