NAPT Executive Director & CEO
DR. Molly McGee-Hewitt
The National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT) and the NAPT Foundation have announced that Dr. Molly McGee-Hewitt is the new executive director and CEO for both associations.
McGee-Hewitt brings over 25 years of experience in public education and association management and leadership. She previously served in executive leadership positions with two large and prestigious educational associations, the California School Boards Association, and the California Association of School Business Officials, where she most recently served as CEO.
Please share with us what drew you to apply for the NAPT executive director position?
My entire career has been in education, both as a classroom teacher administrator, working for professional associations in education, even serving on a school board. As I just left my last association, which was the California Association of School Business Officials, I was looking for a new challenge. I was looking for something else that I wanted to do while continuing with what I consider my mission. Simon Sinek says we all need to know what our why is. My why is that I seek to empower, encourage and inspire leaders in education. I look at the members of National Association of Pupil Transportation (NAPT) and our foundation and I see people who are committed to their profession, who are committed to transporting children safely. It is a cause that I believe in and I can get behind, and I think I have something to offer.
What do you see as the biggest challenge for associations like NAPT today?
I think associations today have challenges with different generational expectations, and how different generations approach the marketplace, professional development and professional networking a little bit differently. I think that younger generations are used to being able to go online and access information, to create relationships using social media and the like, whereas way back in the day when you wanted to network, the only way that you could do it was to go to a conference. I think professional associations have long played a role in providing a place for people to get good information and also to network with their colleagues. But one of the challenges is how do we marry what older generations like about attending conferences and what younger generations like about online services and being able to get the information in different formats. One of our challenges is going to be meeting those different generational needs at the same time that we are creating content that works for everyone.
Do you anticipate expanding on education and professional development programming for school transportation professionals?
Well, today at the Road Show here in beautiful Nashville, Tennessee, we are going to have a little bit of a town hall meeting this afternoon with our attendees. One of the questions that I am asking them are, what are the three issues that keep you up at night? What kind of training do you need? What kind of training do you think your staff needs? And asking them to give us their feedback about what NAPT and the NAPT foundation can do for them and for the profession. I think being able to listen and to hear what they are saying and not make some judgements based on my limited experience and that of a few people, but to really get a cross section of folks who are telling us from being in the field, what they are experiencing every day and what they need. As we go to expand, the idea of expansion is not just to have a huge course catalog, but it’s to have courses that really meet the needs of our members that will really protect the students that we serve, with student safety always being at our forefront.
How do we get the broader educational community to recognize the value of school transportation and the people engaged in safe transportation?
It is kind of interesting. Like I mentioned this morning in my general remarks to the group, I always felt that I represented what I called the Rodney Dangerfield side of the house. It is just harder for us to get respect than it is for the classroom or from the instructional side of the house. I am fortunate that I have been on both sides of the house, and here is what I know about houses. You need walls on both sides and in the front and the back to hold the house up. It’s not one side or one group that does it. You cannot have world-class schools without a world-class infrastructure that supports those schools. Kids who cannot get to school cannot learn. Special education students who need special transportation issues based on their IEPs and what we are doing need special accommodations. That is going to come from our professionals, our pupil transportation professionals working with them.
As I look forward and as I see what is coming up, one of the things I think is that we just need to listen to our members. We need to hear what they are saying and make sure that we are answering those needs, and also to be watching the industry. Right now, electric buses are a major topic. How are we going to do that? What kind of equipment, what kind of mechanical needs is it going to have that are different than the past? What kind of other needs are there going to be that come about because of electric buses? What about recruiting bus drivers? There is a nationwide shortage in bus drivers. What do we do to address that shortage in bus drivers?
There is a lot of different issues out there that we need to look at. We need to listen to our members to make sure that we’re answering the right questions and that we are also anticipating a little bit as best we can what is coming down.
What are you most looking forward to as you start your time with the NAPT community?
Well, I am most looking forward to the relationships that I am establishing with our members and our member leadership and all the different organizations that we interact with. I think that we still live in a world where relationships matter, and when we create coalitions, cooperatives and alliances with other people where we can marshal our forces by working together, it makes us all stronger. It is not about who is the best, it is about who can provide the best services. I always like that saying that if you do not care who gets the credit, there are wonderful things you can do. Well, I definitely want NAPT to get the credit and I want our members to feel valued, appreciated and wanted. I want them to be considered valuable members of the education team in their school districts. But in order to do that, it is about creating relationships and building those relationships. That is what I am most excited about.
Please tell us something about yourself that our members might not know about you.
It is interesting because I grew up in a time before there were cellphones everywhere. I often feel grateful there are things that I do not have to share. But I do think I am a lifelong learner. I continually read. I take classes. I am trying to constantly be aware of what is going on in the world. I think that one of the things about being a lifelong learner is that you just keep looking for new opportunities. What do I need to do to be better at what I do? Some folks think you do not have to do that as you get older or as you get into certain positions. To be successful, you have to always be learning. You have to be aware of your successes, your assets, your liabilities, and always try to work on those.
As a lifelong learner, I have no desire to have any more degrees, but I do have a desire to keep learning. I am not sure that everyone would know that. I am a mother, a grandmother. I have done a lot of things in my life. I have done a lot of writing. I love to blog. I love everything from Formula One to Queen. I like shooting. I am kind of a complex person probably in terms of my likes. I like to think that I am eclectic in what I like to do. I find that we have members of our association and the foundation that probably share some of the things I like and some that do not.
I guess the lifelong learner is the most important part, but that there’s always a human side to it as well.