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There's a kind of leadership that doesn't announce itself with fanfare. It shows up early, stays late, and finds joy in the small, steady work of making schools better, one conversation, one decision, one percent at a time. At four of DSST's high schools, that's exactly the kind of leadership you'll find.
Administering medicine
Jacob Burdette's journey to DSST started in Hinton, West Virginia. After graduating, he joined Teach For America: Appalachia, where he fell in love with both teaching and science. He's been leading at DSST for five years and recently transitioned to School Director at Aurora Science & Tech High School (AST), where he and School Director on Special Assignment Kryszelda (KZ) Gorrell are partnering to build something remarkable for the Owls.
Burdette's leadership philosophy is rooted in a quote from Alice Walker: "Those who love us never leave us alone with our grief. At the moment they show us our wound, they reveal they have the medicine." For Burdette, educational leadership is the vehicle for administering that medicine, whether it's connecting with a student facing challenges, coaching a teacher or strengthening family partnerships.
"Working with Burdette is like going to a really fun party, it is a blast!" said Kevin Greeley, Managing Director at DSST. "He is able to blend doing really serious work while having fun at the same time."
That energy is contagious. Students and staff at AST HS are continually growing, and students are always happy to see Burdette because they know he cares deeply about their success.
“I believe deeply in the capabilities of our students to achieve academic excellence and lead choice-filled lives,” Burdette said. “My role as a school director is … to eliminate distractions and offer support and development that enable students and staff to focus on learning and growth in service of our mission.”
The fortune teller
Elin Curry has been at DSST: Cedar since 2014, first as instructional leader and then as School Director for the middle and high school since 2019. Before that, she helped found two schools within Denver Public Schools, taught science, and earned her master's in education and administrative certificate. But what really sets Curry apart is her ability to see around corners.
"Elin is like a fortune teller," Greeley shared. "She knows what is going to happen and how it should happen months before anyone else!"
That foresight, combined with her commitment to “developing empathetic, open-minded people to achieve data-driven outcomes," has created something special at Cedar. Under Curry's leadership, Cedar Middle School received a National Blue Ribbon award in 2019, and Cedar High School earned the same honor in 2024.
"[Being a leader] is about supporting students to know and be their best selves, and providing them with as many opportunities as possible moving forward from their time at Cedar,” Curry said. “I get to do this at Cedar by supporting the adults in our building to be their best each day for our students, despite the increasingly turbulent and difficult context that exists outside of our school building.”
Skiing a powder day
Ian McIntire didn't grow up in Denver, but you'd never know it. Since arriving from Portland, Oregon in 2009 as a Teach for America Corps Member, McIntire has become a DSST: Cole Dragon through and through. He's been at Cole campus at all three levels: elementary, middle, and high school, since 2011, and as he puts it, he "couldn't be more proud to bleed green."
For McIntire, leadership right now is about "creating belonging, stability and guidance for our students and families" in a time of rapid societal and technological change. "When we effectively provide guidance and vision through change, our students will continue to pursue ambitious, trajectory-changing outcomes well beyond the status quo," he said.
Greeley's take on working with Ian? "It's like skiing a great powder day. He works super hard and has a ton of fun doing it!" That combination of joy and rigor has made Cole the highest-rated high school in the Five Points neighborhood. Students at Cole are five to six times more likely to be college ready in math and twice as likely in reading and writing compared to other schools in the area.
The calm in the storm
Erik Jacobson has spent 13 years in southwest Denver schools, moving from science teacher to assistant principal to his current role as School Director at DSST: College View High School. His background in biochemistry and anthropology from Colorado College might seem like an unusual path to school leadership, but it makes perfect sense when you meet him. Jacobson is a sensemaker, someone who can take complex, competing ideas and weave them into something coherent and actionable.
"Being a leader in education means creating the conditions for every member of our community to grow just a little bit each day," he said. "I believe in the power of being 1% better, knowing that small, consistent improvements compound into transformational change over time."
That philosophy isn't just talk. Working with Jacobson, according to Greeley, "is like sitting through a meditation retreat; he is always calm in the middle of the storm." Students at College View see themselves as scholars who can achieve anything, and Jacobson's steady leadership is a big reason why.
What ties them together
These five leaders don't lead the same way, but watch them in action and you'll see the common threads: they're present, they're consistent and they believe deeply in the people around them.
They understand that leadership isn't about having all the answers. It's about creating the conditions where students can see themselves as scholars, where teachers can do their best work, and where communities can thrive. It's about being 1% better every day, skiing through the hard work with joy, seeing what's coming before it arrives, and administering the medicine of care and high expectations.
At College View, Cole, Cedar and Aurora Science & Tech, that's exactly what's happening. And it's making all the difference.