Youth at the Core with Joy Delizo-Osborne Live at SXSWEDU 2025

What happens when you're doing everythingleading a school, serving your community, answering the phones, teaching mathand still feel like you're drowning? In this Exit Interview live show, Dr. Asia Lyons sits down with Joy Delizo-Osborne, who shares the real reason she left her role as a founding principal: her doctor said quit, and her wife offered her a puppy if she finally did.

This conversation is not a highlight reel. It's a deeply human exploration of what it costs to stay in systems that praise your sacrifice but ignore your spirit. Joy reflects on burnout, Black womens addiction to care, and how hard it is to believe the job isn't your identity. She also offers a glimpse into her nowas CEO of Student Achievement Partnerswhere shes rewriting the rules of leadership, bringing equity and literacy into the same sentence, and finally choosing joy (and dogs).

If youve ever felt pulled between purpose and survival, this episode is your mirror and your permission slip.

Amidst all of the conversations about the recruitment of Black educators, where are the discussions about retention? The Exit Interview podcast was created to elevate the stories of Black educators who have been pushed out of the classroom, main or central office. The podcast asks guests to share their education journey, the "last straw" that made them decide to leave education, and, most importantly, what they are doing now that they have left the traditional education sphere.