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Head of the Class Get to know the CHCCS superintendent who joined at the start of the year By Je ssic a Str in g er | P h o to by J ohn Mi chael Si m pson
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
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aryland-raised Nyah Hamlett spent most of her adult life in Virginia, earning a bachelor’s degree in speechlanguage pathology and audiology from Old Dominion University, two master’s degrees in K-12 reading and educational leadership from Regent University and a doctorate in educational policy, planning and leadership from The College of William & Mary. She spent twelve years with Henrico County Public Schools at both the school and central office levels and most recently, served as chief of staff for Loudoun County Public Schools. Nyah started as the superintendent of Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools on Jan. 1.
ccCC You’vecccccCC You’vecccccCCCCCC’vecccccCC You’vecccccCCCCCC I’m sure you had many, but who was an influential teacher you had growing up?
The athletic director at Seneca Valley High School [in Germantown, Maryland] was Mr. [Rick] Samuda. He just made sure that he held student-athletes accountable while also making sure there was a connection between the court or the field and your classroom. He was a huge, huge inspiration and a great role model for young people at Seneca Valley way back then. Did you participate in sports in high school?
I did. I played basketball. And then I also was a cheerleader just for football and competition. Did you always know you wanted to go into education?
Absolutely. As a freshman in high school, I played on the varsity team. [That] year, we were playing at Paint Branch High School, and there were 56
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three girls on their junior varsity team who had obvious physical disabilities, one of whom had Down syndrome. I was 14 and sitting in the stands [watching the JV game] with my teammates crying, because I was so moved that their team and their school community seemed to be so inclusive. Well, I had some teammates who were kind of chuckling and laughing a bit. That was the first time that I knew that I wanted to go into education and work with people with disabilities, because even as a young 14-year-old on the varsity team, I was standing up to some of my junior and senior teammates saying, ‘Hey, that’s not right. You shouldn’t laugh at them.’ That was the first time that I had the opportunity to [be an advocate].
You began your career as a special education teacher in Virginia Beach City Public Schools. How did those years as a teacher shape your understanding as you got into administration?
I was able to hone some of my leadership skills early on just juggling the instructional side of the job, the case management side and then also having to serve kind of as an administrator in some of those roles. And then the other thing I’ll say is just the connections that I was able to make with students and the impact that I didn’t realize I had on them my first or second or even third year of teaching. Seeing young people who are now young adults in the community years later and them telling me what an impact that I had on them also helped to shape my leadership pathway. I just knew that I wanted to do whatever I could to make sure that adult issues did not get in the way of