Are you ready to become an educational leader? Before you answer this question, let me introduce myself… My name is Ida D’Ugo. I am Empowering Creative Minds LLC's founder and creative force, a Certified Woman-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE), and a professional educational consulting firm. I help educators become leaders through professional learning sessions and instructional coaching. I am passionate about teacher efficacy – the ability to make a difference in education and help improve student achievement – and cultivating teachers to become educational leaders. I chose the teaching profession because of my desire to make a difference in the lives of students. I have worked and continue to work as an educator to enhance my pedagogical and leadership skills related to building relationships, strategic planning, curriculum development, assessment, data-driven instruction, grant management, professional learning communities, and coaching/mentoring to achieve this goal. My primary core professional value has driven me as an educator and now as an educational consultant. My efforts to help educators and students have been acknowledged in my career with numerous honors and awards. Notably, Yonkers Public Schools 2019 - 2020 Secondary School Teacher of the Year Award Yonkers Public Schools Certificate of Recognition for Teacher Leadership – May 2018 Yonkers Public Schools Certificate of Recognition for Teacher Leadership – June 2017 St. John's University, Administrative and Instructional Leadership Excellence in Graduate Studies: Advanced Certificate in School Building Leadership Award - 2015 According to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech on March 18, 1968, to striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee; he defined power as the ability to achieve a purpose and effect change. This definition inspired my company’s name. After all, doesn’t this exemplify the role of educators? With over 18 years in education (nine in a transformational school that progressed from a persistently struggling school to a school in good standing) and 24 years in corporate roles, let me provide you with educational consulting services to help foster the growth of best practices for educators to achieve their goals and effect transformational change.