Six Departments, One Decision: Dr. Melissa Sadorf on the Rural Edge

Rural schools aren't behind on AI, they're being set up to look that way. Dr. Michael Conner sits down with Dr. Melissa Sadorf, executive director of the National Rural Education Association (NREA), to talk about what rural education actually needs, and why the people leading it are more capable than federal policy gives them credit for. Dr. Sadorf is finishing her first year as executive director of NREA, the oldest national education organisation in the country, founded in 1907, and is the author of *The Resilient Rural Leader*. She unpacks NREA's first-ever five-year strategic plan, challenges the rescue narrative baked into federal AI education policy, and makes the case that the rural superintendent may be the most versatile leader in American education. In this episode: → The five strategic goals guiding NREA's first five-year plan → Why the rural superintendent's many roles are a structural advantage, not a burden → Four ways to build real capacity without new money → How competitive grants favour districts that already have grant-writing teams — and what a formula-based alternative looks like → The National Rural Principal Fellowship and what it means for the next generation of rural leaders → Why "no AI strategy survives a home with no broadband" Learn more: nrea.net