Counselor. Elementary school teacher. Director of traditional schools. Organizer of foreign language magnet school as a vehicle for desegregation. Director of public information. Motivational coach for staff employees. Principal of two schools simultaneously. Budget planner. Grant writer. Director of curriculum and instruction. The listing could easily represent the career resume of three or four individuals.  It’s a stretch to believe one woman could have accomplished all that. But defying the imagination is a well-practiced art form for Juana Hishaw who, upon retiring after 32 years with the Kansas City Missouri Public Schools, took the afternoon off and reported the next day for her new job as director of curriculum and instruction for the Center School District.

Meeting Hishaw in person is like a wild roller coaster ride. The passenger car most assuredly leaves the tracks of normal expectations.  Here is a woman with a lilting voice, an easy laugh, a warm relaxed manner, a youthful exuberance – qualities more commonly associated with the beginning of one’s career instead of the passage of more than three decades.  As she talks, she seems ageless.  There is an enduring simplicity about what she lives for, works for, honors in all she does.

“Kids are kids are kids,” she exclaims. “They need structure, nurturing, a belief system; (they need us to set high) expectations (for them) no matter where they are.”  In an instant she is both wizened educator and child herself.  In her eyes is the memory of a pivotal moment in her own childhood.  She was just eight years old.

“I was going to school in Connecticut. I remember a special teacher who decided I was not a lost cause.  She helped me with my reading. She saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” she said. “She instilled a deep desire in me. When I came back to Kansas City, I was ahead of the rest of the class.  Largely because of that teacher’s belief in me, I decided, at age 10, to become a teacher.”

Hishaw has never forgotten what it’s like being a student who needs someone to see a hidden quality or talent, to invest a little belief, even blind faith.

In 1966, she moved from California back to the Midwest to attend Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg, like her brother, three years her senior. It was a financial struggle, but her mother – single parent of five children – made sure Juana got to attend CMSU though she left Los Angeles with only $100 in her pocket (which she lost in transit). She attended CMSU for three quarters.

Following marriage, she moved to Kansas City and, with family support, she began night classes at Penn Valley Community College. On completion of the program, she transferred to UMKC to continue her education.

“I faced challenges in preparing myself and making sure I was ready for university work. No one watered down anything.  This is what we have to do with kids today: raise the bar, not lower it,” she insists.

Hishaw has lovingly applied the bar of high expectations to her own children.  She and Robert, her husband of 35 years, who retired after more than 30 years with Allied Signal, raised two sons. One is married with two children and lives in Tucson. The other is completing a six-year residency in neurology/psychiatry at the University of Arizona. 

While Hishaw professes that “school became an integral part of my life,” and no one would doubt her dedication, the ties of deep and enduring love always kept her family close at hand.  “Everyone around me knew my sons and everything about them,” she beams. 

Hishaw’s career journey has been made with a rare combination of gifts: the vulnerability, need and determination of the eight-year-old Juana; the motherly heart; and the scholarly educator’s vision and voice (she earned four degrees at UMKC – a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, a master’s degree in education administration, a specialist’s degree in reading and a doctorate in education administration). 

Hishaw began her career as a classroom teacher and progressed through several levels with the Kansas City Missouri School District. As an elementary counselor and child development specialist, she worked on self-esteem issues with groups and individuals, and recommended practices and programs to assist in shoring up self-esteem.  Years later, a youth at church would venture up to her to thank her for helping him when she was a counselor and he was a student.  There were dozens like him, assisted by her cheerful spirit and non-traditional, motivational approaches.  “I really listened and thought outside the box,” she says.

It was a natural transition for Hishaw to become lead teacher of her own classroom; she instructed children in grades 3 through 6 and supervised student teachers.  Her imagination and skills got the chance to soar outside the classroom when she was called upon to plan, organize and establish a foreign language magnet school, Ecole Longan French Magnet Elementary.  She completed a French immersion course at the University of Quebec to equip herself for the task.  Among her many roles, including principal, at Ecole Longan, Hishaw provided instructional leadership through a program that emphasized core competencies and provided motivational coaching to 50 staff members, in addition to conducting long-range strategic planning and managing the budget. 

Hishaw’s full range of abilities propelled her to several roles in the central office so that others could learn from her expertise.  Sometimes, as in any career, there were tough periods; but Hishaw recalls them only as “growth periods,” such as her time as director of public information for the district.  “We were in a glass bowl. I received calls from the news media day and night,” she recalled.

Hishaw is a resilient and talented educational leader who went on to supervise principals in the development of a collaborative school improvement plan as director of traditional schools. She was responsible for court-ordered and district programs, coordinated site-based training, managed budgets and helped foster desegregation.

She continued in a lead administrative role as director of the Magnet Schools Assistance Program, developing grant proposals and working to enhance curriculum materials, developing staff and planning student activities.  In 2003, she was tapped to serve as principal of both West Rock Creek Traditional School and Pitcher Elementary School.

In all of her 32 years working for the Kansas City Missouri Public Schools, Hishaw never got hung up on ego or position.  “I always just tried to treat people as people and to work together,” she notes.  “I’m constantly moving, always listening, always asking: What support do you need from me?”  She doesn’t hesitate a moment when addressing her top priority: “The students,” she affirms.

If Hishaw sounds like some kind of modern day superwoman, she is.  Her accomplishments have been recognized through official honors and public accolades. Busy as she is with career and family, she also makes time for “giving back.”  Hishaw is active in community organizations, holding offices in organizations including Links, Inc., Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc. (where she chaired the debutante ball), Carrousels, Inc. and Twin Citians.

She is a member of the board of directors of Gillis Center and Armour Home. She is a past president of the board of directors of Rockhurst High School and a Centurion graduate of the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.  She also holds numerous professional affiliations: the Assn. for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the Kansas City Assn. of School Administrators, the Missouri State Assn. of Elementary School Principals and the National Assn. of Elementary School Principals, to name a few.

As long as there is work to be done, Hishaw has no plans to retire. She loves what she does and sees reason for hope, even where others see doom and gloom.  “You can get lost in thinking about problems; but we have a lot of success in education. We’re in a different age, educating a different generation. We have to find out what works for them. Kids today are electronically literate.  We have to work that much harder to keep them interested,” she says.  There’s no doubt Hishaw will be on the front lines, sleeves rolled, ready for action.

The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), one of four University of Missouri campuses, is a public university serving more than 14,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students.  UMKC engages with the community and economy based on a three-part mission: visual and performing arts, health sciences, and urban affairs.

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