Pulsehive

•	Architect and direct AI-readiness and workforce innovation consulting for large-scale organizations, leading strategy design, program delivery, and impact evaluation.

•      Design and deploy scalable, modular training programs for enterprise-wide platform adoption (Canvas, Articulate), measurably improving user proficiency and engagement.

•     Provide executive coaching to senior leaders on integrating AI into L&D ecosystems to enable personalized learning pathways and data-driven, scalable support.

Learning Design Experience: Kajabi, Maven, Samcart and Instructure/Canvas, Articulate360/Rise360

CEO and Founder

Solutionary Advisors

As part of the RE(AI)DY EDU team and an Executive Leadership Coach, I work in the Solutionary Advisors Collaborative serving leaders and systems in education. I continue to work on a contract basis with the impactful team at Solutionary Advisors.

Educational Leadership Consultant

San Mateo County Office of Education

◘Built and led a diverse team of 10 to design and grow 5 concurrent, enterprise-scale L&D programs for 4,500+ adult learners across 300+ client organizations, consistently achieving high rates of user adoption and satisfaction.
◘Orchestrated a multi-year change management initiative to build a holistic professional growth ecosystem, deploying differentiated coaching and continuous feedback cycles to drive performance improvement.
◘Embedded inclusive design and equity-centered practices across credential programs, including robust data analysis protocols, proactive community input, and applied content exercises. Focused on identifying and disrupting patterns of inequity at individual, classroom, and system levels, informed by research and experts in the field.
◘Provided multi-year leadership support to district administrators at the county level in early learning and PK-3 alignment related to math and ELA pedagogy and practice.
◘Spearheaded program data review cycles, drove curriculum revisions and alignment, benchmarked job-embedded assessments, anchored credential work to state professional standards, ensured consistent communication, and fostered stakeholder engagement to enhance program success.
◘Managed and maximized a $3M+ annual budget, securing contracts with 30+ districts annually. Wrote grants securing $3 million in funding for early childhood and special education workforce development.
◘Coached 20+ site and central office administrators in 2-year cycles, designed and taught 15+ courses annually. 
◘Served as a cross-divisional leader for County Office Strategic Plan, Childcare Partnership Council, Special Education, Assessment, and Accountability.
◘Progressively advanced in roles from Coordinator (2014) to Director (2015-2018) to Executive Director (2019-2022).

Executive Director, Teacher and Administrator Development

Director, Administrator and Beginning Teacher Services

Coordinator, Leadership and Administrator Services

Coordinator - Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Induction Program

Oakland Unified School District

Engaged site administrators and leadership teams on first-year implementation of California Content Standards in English Language Arts through reviewing implementation, organizational behavior, and systems for educator professional growth and alignment.

Central Literacy Specialist - Secondary

•	Led site with a student population of 99% lower socioeconomic status, 58% students identified as English Learners, and 75% teaching staff on emergency credentials or in the first year of teaching.
•	Reduced classroom referrals and school suspensions by over 50% through implementing a school-wide Restorative Justice program.
•	Piloted a new evidence-based evaluation system of teacher effectiveness.
•	Implemented school-wide instructional and leadership coaching practice in support changing culture from punitive to growth - 90% of all 8th graders showed grade and attendance improvement after school wide intensive mentoring matchup (1 adult mentor).
•	Designed, monitored, and implemented two years of Federal School Improvement Grant for $3 million annually.
•	Supervised over 50 staff, including core classroom teachers, coaches, mental health partners, and support. 
•	Led Common Core Math and English first-year implementation.

Principal, Alliance Academy

Principal Leadership Institute, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley

Lecturer for Principal Leadership Institute at University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Education. Taught courses grounded in strong adult learning theory on the topics of Instructional Leadership and Change Management.

Lecturer

South San Francisco Unified School District

As Assistant Principal - Counseling and Guidance, oversaw development of all Special Education programs, English Learner programs, all State and College Board tests, Counseling (college planning, graduation/at-risk planning, and mental health counseling) and well as maintained compliance requirements for programs. Co- designed site professional learning. Staff supervision.

Assistant Principal, South San Francisco High School

San Francisco Unified School District

Assistant Principal of 500 student school during initial school improvement plan process. School discipline, operations and counseling point person, including using a systematic program to reduce disproportionate classroom referrals for African-American boys.  School programs included bilingual Mandarin classes, Special Education-Emotional Disturbance and Special Day Classes.  Led initial work to mainstream students with a general education/special day class collaboration in grade 7 between teachers, students and administration. Francisco Middle School serves students in grades 6-8.

Assistant Principal, Francisco Middle School

Thurgood Marshall High School

Team taught Special Day Class and General Education grade 9 English course.  Led department through creation of writing rubric cross genres and grade levels.  Bay Area School Reform Instructional Reform Facilitator - leading school wide plan for literacy across the curriculum.

English Teacher, Instructional Reform Facilitator

How long until you reach your goals as a school, as a system, as a leader, if you change nothing?

Systems love replication. 

Schools have perfected it. 

They hold tight to what is comfortable, familiar, and predictable. But true leadership doesn’t happen in the comfortable spaces.

I’m Cheryl Agrawal, your strategic partner and the catalyst your leadership didn’t know it needed. 

With clarity, compassion, and just enough rebellion, I help education leaders navigate through entrenched bureaucracy, complex policies, and the oh-so-human realities of change. Together, we create something far better than just improvement. We spark transformation, in your voice and with your thumbprint, where educators and students ✨THRIVE✨

At Massively Good Leadership, I don’t merely consult.

I collaborate.
I amplify.
I ignite. 

My work is designed specifically to stop the endless tinkering that never moves the needle far enough. Instead, I help you build powerful leadership retreats, catalytic coaching sprints, and strategic studios that turn vague ideas into crystal-clear action plans.

—> Imagine a system where your multi-language learners aren’t left chasing incremental percentage points, where your students with special education plans are truly served and thriving. 
—> Picture your graduation rates not stalled in the 80s or 90s, but boldly reaching toward 100% because every learner is engaged, prepared, and empowered for their future.

That’s the kind of wildly optimistic, grounded, doable work we do together.

Let’s stop waiting. Let’s make the bold, strategic moves that your leadership legacy demands.

Ready to dive in? Connect with me or book a quick call and to ignite the massively good change you’ve been waiting for. www.massivelygood.com

The best AI skill I've developed has nothing to do with technology.
It's learning to map my own thinking.

I spent years studying metacognition in one grad program and amplifying underrepresented voices in another. Seemed like separate skills. Turns out they're solving the same problem in different contexts: making what's invisible visible.

Now I use both frameworks every time I work with AI. I document my processes. I deliberately prompt for perspectives unlike my own. I study how I'm thinking, not just what I'm producing.

This practice does two things: keeps my mind sharp and clarifies what stays human.

Because we're not choosing between "AI takes all jobs" or "master AI or die." We're figuring out how to stay irreplaceably human while these tools reshape everything around us.

That's what I explore each week in my Substack, Irreplaceable: the AI Leadership Weekly (https://lnkd.in/gp2DaKbZ). 

This week I'm writing about why your thinking process might be your competitive advantage.
Check it out [link in comments].

Cheryl Agrawal

Helping You Ditch AI Imposter Syndrome I Know How, When & Why to Use AI (Coaching, Classes & Custom Trainings) I Senior Executive Coach & Leadership Development | Organizational L&D at Scale and 1:1

😊 I’m going live for 10 days to learn AI agents and I have no idea how it’ll go.😊
 
Learn AI Agents alongside me as I check off successes, stumble through clumsy errors, have sleepy kids knock on the door of my office and all the rest. 

I've built a "10 Day Sprint: Learn Claude Code Deeply and Practically" and I'm going to go live, stumble and soar through each day and I invite you in with me. 

Why join me in this free sprint?
-->Super low stakes
-->Super practical
-->Chances are that you'll have more marketable skills in 10 days that you would if you didn't join in on the learning

I'll collect the results and share, but if you'd like to workshop on your own computer alongside me (and keep your successes and fails, well, more private than mine), drop "It's On" below and I'll send you the link to the daily live session and the recordings once they're done. 

👉 My Goal? 
By Day 10 you’ll not only build three operational agents:
You’ll understand how they think, loop, verify, and operate inside a system.
You’ll be able to explain concepts like agent loops, verification, context windows, and permissions in your own words.
You'll be ready to deploy a real pilot agent if you choose.

End 2025 knowing more than you do right now. Here's a safe place to muddle through the tech and give your resume a new bullet point.

Who's directing your time online?
You? 

Here's my challenge for us in these last 85 days of 2025.

Use tech intentionally.

Open an app to boost YOUR creativity.
Login to ChatGPT to strengthen YOUR strategy.
Ask for Gemini results that will coach YOU to learn the topic through high-level questions that match your level of productive struggle. 
Set the phone down and jog YOUR memory about the name of the restaurant you want to suggest for dinner this weekend. 
Choose how long YOU want to be on any app (LinkedIn, X, New York Times and more). 

The technology around us is astounding. I am grateful for it.
But I'm also grateful for my mind's ability to work when the internet is down.

Open article: How TikTok keeps its users scrolling for hours a day by washingtonpost.com

How TikTok keeps its users scrolling for hours a day

So what *IS* the vision for an AI-first, efficient society?

Today’s news that Amazon is laying off 30,000 people likely caught your attention- even if your most direct connection to Amazon are the packages that arrive on your doorstep.

If a company that complains when earnings are up by nearly $20 Billion (Q2 2025) year over year chooses layoffs at scale, what is the rest of the economy to do?

As we are here, building AI fluency and integrating into workflows, what is the actual vision?

Because a society of underemployed people without productive ties to industry and one another isn’t a vision where society thrives. 

Who are the voices casting a hopeful future with the increased productivity and complete upheaval of careers as we know it?

The way leaders talk about AI is shaping how every person around them works, learns, and imagines the future. 
Three leaders. Three mindsets. Three radically different futures of work.
Which one would you want to work for?
_____________________________
1. “𝙈𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚'𝙨 𝙖 𝙟𝙤𝙗 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝘼𝙄 𝙬𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙣'𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙞𝙩 𝙮𝙚𝙩." - Walmart CEO, Doug McMillan

This is the thinking of someone recognizing reality (the rapidly accelerating pace of AI) and seeing the ripple effect. 
At its best, it's saying: 
(1) we need to acknowledge there will be change and disruption,
(2) it will be widespread (𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑗𝑜𝑏𝑠), and,
(3) thinking more expansively can start a transformation allowing adjustment and reinvention of roles. 

This stance says: change is inevitable, but we can shape it. Leaders like this create space for discovery instead of panic.

2. “𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙣'𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝘼𝙄" and the agreement that "𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙" or written content - Azeem Azhar Founder, Exponential View

This is the thinking of someone who has hired wisely, trained and supported a team and then created processes that have guardrails (ie for legal and customer data), but permit people to ideate, build better solutions and fail along the way. It’s exploration with integrity: create boldly, own fully.

He’s betting on creativity, not compliance. Not micromanaging nor fear-based controls.
In his world:
(1) AI is a playground, not a police state.
(2) Teams are trusted to build, break, and own the outcome.
(3) Guardrails exist, but they’re bumpers, not barriers.

3. “𝘿𝙚𝙛𝙖𝙪𝙡𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝘼𝙄 𝙤𝙧 𝙚𝙡𝙨𝙚.” - Kat Natajian, CEO of OpenDoor
This one lands with a thud because that's what ultimatums do. 
He demands: Use AI (more than your own mind)or look for the exit.
And he'll get a spike in productivity, but, a decline in trust and creativity. 

Suddenly, everyone is scrambling to look busy, terrified to ask dumb questions, and no one dares to try something that might not work the first time. And the irony is fear may get people moving, but it never gets them thinking.

These frames matter.
𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗔𝗜, 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴. 
Are they free to experiment? Or just desperate not to be replaced?
Are you setting the stage for possibility? Or enforcing survival mode?

Every organization right now is choosing how they will move forward:
→ Expand minds, or tighten grip?
→ Make space to fail, or demand perfection?
→ Treat AI as a tool for people, or treat people as tools for AI?

What mindset do you hold?

I've always held the idea of learning as one of the most thrilling opportunities we have as being human. 

The absolute magic of our minds and how they are simultaneously powerful and fragile is astounding. Something I have spent decades working with and  when I find myself falling into an attention trap, manipulated by the scroll or the feed, then I also take a step back to consider what's happening. I don't want to be a passive consumer of technology or what is put before me. 

I don't want that for me, for you, for my kids, for your kids, for your neighbors. 

I want the magic of our creations and mind. 

I want eye contact. 

And I want to wisely and strategically use technology, but not be manipulated by it.

Trouble is, we're drowning in addictive and provocative content and technologies that are blurring the lines between what's real and not. They are also blurring the lines between what we choose for ourselves and what is chosen for us by algorithms and computations.

This essay by Jay Clouse captures my own love / fear relationship with tech these days. (https://lnkd.in/gjkeGd_6)

If you're navigating a path through AI implementation for you or your team and want to do it in a very HUMAN-centered and HUMAN directed way, that's what I do. I'd love to connect.

Open article: Sora and Vibes: We're Being Played With by creatorscience.com

“If you wouldn’t put it on the internet for the whole world to see, then you shouldn’t enter it into ChatGPT.”

👆This is what I share with people I coach and groups I train.

And, while there are loads of people who use any GenAI to evaluate medical reports for themselves or scan emails daily, it’s a good baseline for most of us. 

Because ChatGPT and all the other platforms are technology platforms with a level of protection of data, but NO EXPECTATION of privacy. Ultimately, what you enter into a chat or upload for context is part of that LLM ecosystem.

Having this as a filter will help you stop and consider :
—> not entering people’s personal, identifiable information. (Relevant for teachers, sports team coaches and others who might have images and rosters to upload).
—> not uploading proprietary information about your company or customers (publicly available information is ok).

So dive into AI exploration, but keep this in mind.

What are your AI guardials?

27 out of 100.

Of 100 people spotlighted in this promo by TIME about leading voices and influences in AI, only 27 present as women.

Barely a quarter.

So we fix that.

Women are putting their thumbprints on work, frameworks, industries. They’re doing it loudly and in ways we can see and celebrate and follow.

But they are also doing it strategically. By connecting people and ideas and weaving practices and mindsets into their work and their work of those they lead and influence.

Whose work would you add to this list👇?

I’ll start with Dr. Sabba Quidwai and Rebecca Bultsma .

The AI industry is changing rapidly. Here are just a few of the names that are driving AI research, warning us about the harms of this largely unregulated industry, launching new products, and more. Presented by General Catalyst

Monday reminder that in the midst of today’s agenda, ground yourself in something uniquely human.
This was mine.

Just a person whose spent the better part of 20 years in the how, when and why we learn as individuals and at scale.

Curious how you'd explain the science of learning and importance of keeping our minds active. . .

ChatGPT had just passed its one year mark in public when I started talking about my “tech stack”. 

I was heavily using multiple solutions for my workflow—> just not using that terminology.

With AI advancements coming in at a rapid pace, I wonder what terms signal people are in the know or not, right now, in your work places?

-AI optimization?
-Agentic workflows?

It seems “vibe coding” has already become passè. 🥴

What’s the AI vocabulary the cool kids are using?

When I was sixteen, I learned a mindset that still saves me.
A woman at my dad’s law office told me a story about a UC Berkeley professor who once said:
“There are five solutions to any problem.”

That single line has shaped how I parent, how I lead, and how I think about AI.

Because when we challenge ourselves to find options four and five — the ones that seem impossible — that’s where things really get interesting. We break free from more binary thinking.

And right now, when so many leaders are misusing technology, we need that kind of thinking more than ever.

✨ My latest Substack dives deeper into this idea of how stretching our imagination changes how we use AI, how we lead, and how we create space for what really matters.
Link Substack in Comments

The best teams I’ve ever led:

-Made homemade baked goods for in office birthday celebrations 

-Covered the presentation without missing a beat when someone’s child was sick or the kitchen unexpectedly flooded

-Told me their goals and then said “yes” to the opportunities I found to advance them

-Laughed together (A LOT)

-Addressed conflicts directly, collaboratively and through dialogue

-Shared openly with me about my impacts on team (both the positive and the obstacles I unintentionally created)

-Saw their work as contributing to the whole on the team

-Developed a team identity (even a nickname used amongst ourselves)

-Relentlessly reviewed data and refocused to meet monthly goals

-Got tired, cranky and burnt out and shared the load to get through those times.



This is a post about AI.

No alternative text description for this image

I’m thinking a lot about learning and how well we all truly know and understand how we LEARN as adults.

In a hyper scaled world of AI when we can get massive amounts of deep information immediately and then pass it on to an audience or boss, how are you making sure you are learning?

You want to be able to use the vast amount of info even when the internet’s down. 

What are your steps to work with AI and not end up as merely a human pass through?

Your Team Isn't Failing. Your Communication System Is.

"I just don't think this job is sustainable."

I've heard this from five different leaders in three different industries this month. Smart people. Capable teams.
Same breaking point.

I've been there too. One August evening, I came home and collapsed on the carpet with Led Zeppelin blasting to drown out the replaying conversations, the annoyingly missed handoffs, the confusion rippling through that week's meetings.

You see, communication across teams had become sloppy and that's what depleted my focus and, more importantly, my impact.

Now I work with leaders managing AI transformations and rapid scaling. They tell me:
"I wish they'd just do what we discussed instead of bringing me work I have to completely redo."
"My calendar is wall-to-wall meetings. When exactly am I supposed to do the actual work?"
"Spent late Sunday night clearing emails. Started Monday with 47 new ones."

Organizations need three things: mapping how actions ripple through your systems, analyzing what the data shows, and getting the right information to the right people at the right time.

Most leaders dial in their focus on the first two. Then when they skip step three, they wonder why everything takes twice as long.

Get ahead of communication and watch what happens --> People make better decisions. Friction drops. You reclaim hours.
Try this today: 
💻 Spend five minutes categorizing your incoming messages by
looking for patterns in what people ask, what they misunderstand, what they keep circling back to. You're only scanning for the big stuff.
Pick one fix:
1. Write three paragraphs answering the question you've gotten twelve times this month and watch how many follow-up questions you don't get.
2. Record a two-minute video walking through the process everyone keeps getting wrong. People trust video in ways they don't trust documentation.
3. Build a simple FAQ doc with links to actual resources. Answering the same question becomes copy-paste instead of rewriting from scratch every time.
Ask your team what's unclear before it becomes a crisis
4. Quick survey. Scale of 1-5 on whether they understand the topics causing friction and include one open question so they can tell you what you're missing.
5. Name the miscommunication out loud. Sometimes you just say it: "We've had miscommunication about this and I want to clear it up now so we can move forward."
You might think you already explained it. Explain it again in a new way, a more simple way. Use visuals.

If you're leading AI adoption:
👉 Your people are already at capacity. 👈 
They're learning new tools while doing their regular jobs.
Unclear communication about what's changing, why it matters, what good looks like, where to get help is the difference between a team that adapts and a team that disintegrates.

Ten minutes clarifying something now prevents hours of cleanup later.

What's one communication move that's actually saved you time?

How many parents have had a dialogue with their child's teacher about AI?

Digital literacy and AI fluency is something we all need. Workers, parents, people living in 2025 and just needing to know what the heck is going on. 

I'm not talking about one-sided emails and messages, syllabi that clearly state the AI ban or mention of how MagicSchool AI "is what the district chose".

And I say this because we are ALL in the place of learning and created a path (not just spinning around in overwhelm) forward to understand AI use cases and technology, to explore the promises and protect against the pitfalls, and to sharpen our own skills about how, when and why to use AI. 

Have you had a two-way conversation with educators at your child's school about AI and digital literacy this year?

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