Challenging to Connected
Practical, real, and a little bit rebellious ways to build belonging through connection in early childhood and beyond.
We’ve been learning, teaching, questioning, and growing toward belonging. Now, we’ve created a space to do it together with people like you.
Challenging to Connected isn’t one thing.
It’s many.
And we’re in it with you.
Who We Are
We’re professional learning partners, speakers, consultants, and system-shakers who believe connection and belonging aren’t optional … they’re the whole point.
Sally started out as a marriage and family therapist before moving into the messy, ever-changing world of professional learning and state and program systems change. She’s known for seeing the bigger picture, calling out the unspoken stuff, and coaching leaders and teams toward practices that move them from surface-level inclusion to true belonging. Sally’s college-aged daughter is living proof that what happens early matters for a lifetime.
Favorite Emoji: 🥳
Favorite Quote: “How you are is as important as what you do.” Dr. Jeree Pawl
Most Questionable Belief: Not totally convinced dinosaurs are real. I mean … think about it. Have you ever actually seen one? 😉
Jackie is a researcher, writer, speaker, and consultant with a PhD in education and inclusion. She’s also a neurodivergent mother to two young daughters, one who happens to be disabled, which means this work isn’t just theory, it’s life. Jackie spends her days partnering with communities, leaders, and practitioners as they find their strengths and build belonging with children, families, and one another.
Favorite Emoji: 🪩
Favorite Quote: “The desire to be included by your community, to have meaningful work, and to share life with people you love and who love you—to belong—are not “special needs”: they are very ordinary needs.” (Jones & Gallus, 2021)
Most Questionable Belief: Rainbow sprinkles are a food group.
While we’re both a lot of both, Jackie brings the science and Sally brings the heart.
Together, we’re strategy and story, data and humanity, courage and connection. We’re not here to hand out cookie-cutter answers. We’re here to learn together, to spark new ideas, and to create something with you that’s better.
This isn’t just about us. It’s about you—the professionals, leaders, families, and community-builders who know belonging should be designed in our systems from the start. This space is for figuring it out, shaking up what isn’t working, and celebrating the small (and big) wins together.
Most of all, we’re here to remind you that you belong in this work, in this space, and in this story, too.
What You’ll Get Here
The Newsletter — practical insights, tools, and reflections for educators, families, and leaders. Think of it as our behind-the-scenes, up-to-date learnings. We’re no longer holding information to publish in journals no one will access. We’re sharing it with you, right here, in real time.
The Podcast (Coming Soon!) — this isn’t your professor’s podcast. It is real, honest, and authentic, and timed perfectly for your commute or your lunch break (we know, we know, if you even get one). Each 30ish-minute episode is packed with insights, strategies, and ideas you can put to use right away, or maybe give you something to think differently about.
Resources + Offerings — mini-modules, trainings, and consultation designed for professional learning, coaching, problem solving, or systems change.
Connection — a place to spark new conversations and co-create belonging together.
Who Belongs Here?
This space is for you if you work with kids, raise kids, or lead in the spaces where kids, families, and communities belong, learn, and grow. If you care about connection, if you know surface-level inclusion is not enough, and if you want practical tools and honest talk about what it really takes, Did we just become best friends?
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