AN MSA PODCAST
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 05:
Your Mind Is Not Your Friend: Personal Transformation and the Leader Who Listens with Dr. Rand Harrington
“Your mind is not your friend. Your mind tells you you have all these limitations that you don't have, and it keeps you from doing stuff.” — Dr. Rand Harrington
Rand Harrington did not arrive at school leadership through a conventional path. He earned a PhD in physics, taught Tibetan monks in Dharamsala, and walked from Mexico to Canada at 18. Each experience cracked something open. By the time he took his first headship at Kent Denver School, he had a vision and the confidence to push it. What he lacked was the capacity to listen.
Between headships, he sold his house, bought a sprinter van, and drove across the country for a year. Every day, his wife Chris asked him the same question: how do you want to show up differently? That question changed everything. When he arrived at the American Embassy School of New Delhi in 2024, he showed up asking what the community needed rather than what he planned to deliver.
The shift from "I have the answer" to "I have a question" is not just a leadership posture. Harrington argues it is only possible for leaders who have been through genuine personal transformation themselves.
Guest Bio
Dr. Rand Harrington is the Director of the American Embassy School of New Delhi, a PK-12 international school serving more than 1,000 students from over 70 nationalities. He joined AES in July 2024 after eight years as head of Kent Denver School in Englewood, Colorado, and previously served as associate head of the Blake School in Minneapolis and as Science Department Chair at the Harker School. Earlier in his career, he was an assistant professor at the University of Maine and a researcher at the University of Washington, where he co-developed Physics by Inquiry, a curriculum later used to teach Tibetan monks in Dharamsala. He holds a PhD in physics from the University of Washington and has co-authored two books.
Key Topics Covered
Why personal transformation is a prerequisite for leading change in schools
How a scientific mindset can get in the way of change leadership (and how to adjust)
The difference between arriving with a vision and arriving with a question
Why school leaders should focus attention on their best teachers rather than their underperforming ones
What AI makes possible in education if teachers are willing to move toward human flourishing rather than cognitive transfer