Meet Gerald Johnson, District and School Customer Success at Goalbook
Gerald has had the vision of being a teacher since he was in the 9th grade. Although he took a detour and worked in the private sector doing business administration after graduating from college, Gerald’s vision and conviction sharpened when he heard the need for male educators of color.
When he sees a problem and agrees something needs to change, and if he has the means to help, Gerald will step in and help. Even though he always anticipated going into education after he had worked in the private sector for a while, once he began researching the need for male educators of color, Gerald knew the time was right. He reflected on his own K–12 experience and realized most of the male teachers he had were when he was in high school. So, Gerald decided it would be better for him to go into the elementary school setting. He wanted students to experience academia and having a male educator at an earlier age with the hopes of having a larger impact as they continued their educational journeys.
Thus, Gerald switched careers and became a 5th grade teacher. He held multiple positions in education before coming to Goalbook on the Customer Success team: he taught 1st grade, was a data support specialist, and served as an assistant principal, and a principal. In 2021–22 Gerald was Assistant Principal of the Year for Atlanta Public Schools. In this Q&A, Gerald shares what initially inspired his vision to go into education, how he’s expanded his impact in his current role, and the importance of trusting relationships.
1. What inspired you to go into education?
In my freshman year of high school, algebra came easily to me. I connected with the content well, even though many of my classmates did not. My teacher, Ms. Lamar, noticed that some students would come to me and ask for help during our independent work time. One day after she taught a lesson, she asked everyone who needed help to raise their hand. She helped half of those with their hands up and told the other half to go work with me. We did this for the remainder of the school year, and it made me want to teach high school math.
2. You had worked in the private sector before, so how did you determine what role in the EdTech sector would be best for you? Why did you think you would like that role and think you’d be good at it?
Being a teacher, I had an impact on a limited number of students that were in my school. When I stepped out of the classroom and into educational leadership, it was because it would allow me to have an impact on a greater number of students. With the position at Goalbook being a regional position working with schools in the Southeast region, it would increase the scope of students I can have an impact on.
I also thought customer success would be good for me because some of the requirements of the role lean into my skill sets. For example, the consulting aspect of the job would allow me to leverage my experiences as a school leader. I have a knack for presenting information, and I get to use my presentation delivery skills in this role.
“…a quality education can provide students the opportunity to witness success in their adult lives.”
3. What attracted you to Goalbook’s mission?
How inclusive the mission is by focusing on ALL students because this really aligns to my belief that a quality education can provide students the opportunity to witness success in their adult lives.
Goalbook Toolkit really is a product that supports teachers in being able to support any student they may come across in their classrooms. I was an elementary school principal, and we had a sizable special education population, but I was happily surprised that Goalbook Toolkit could even be used for our general education student population when we think about the MTSS process.
4. In your eyes, how does your work support Goalbook’s mission?
One way is that I get to work directly with teachers during our training sessions. This allows me to have an impact on the work they do on a day-to-day basis to help students witness academic and social success in their school environments.
I also support Goalbook’s mission by being a support to teachers in terms of what they’re going to take away and do as next steps not only in constructing student IEPs, but also in instructional planning.
“Effective collaboration only happens when there is a trusting relationship that has been established.”
5. What have you learned in your role so far?
Effective collaboration only happens when there is a trusting relationship that has been established. One of my concerns when I first stepped into my role was having accounts passed to me. Granted, I have a team member who’s had relationships already with our partners, but I didn’t have a relationship with them, so I was concerned about how that might impact my ability to actually fulfill the responsibilities Goalbook had given me.
But, our partners leaned in, accepted, and listened to me as though we had been working together the whole time. This showed me the level of trust that had been established not just between the two individuals (my teammate and the district lead), but also between Goalbook and the school district. In situations where we have trust established, we can do really great work together.
I’ve also learned about effective practices that can be used to manage my email inbox during the workday. My email inbox was atrocious before I worked for Goalbook, but I’ve learned some intentional strategies that have helped me keep my inbox at zero or below five or ten. I’ve even been showing these strategies to my friends.
Being intentional about my email inbox also helps to build and maintain trust because whomever I’m partnering with knows that I’m going to see their message, give it my full attention, and get back to them in a reasonable amount of time. This goes a long way in building and sustaining trust.
“In situations where we have trust established, we can do really great work together.”
6. What advice would you give to educators who are considering working in the private sector?
Funny story: our Diversity Recruiter Veronica had reached out to me via LinkedIn about three years prior to me joining Goalbook, but I’m bad with social media. Everyone had told me to have a LinkedIn account, so I did, but I never actively went on LinkedIn, nor did I check the messages on LinkedIn. When it came time for me to interview with Goalbook, Veronica mentioned that she had messaged me. I went back to LinkedIn and sure enough, I had an unread message from Veronica from three years prior. So one piece of advice I have is to check your LinkedIn!
The skills educators utilize on a day-to-day basis are skills valued in organizations, like adapting to change, data-based decision-making, and being able to communicate effectively with stakeholders. Educators do these so often, they’re almost mindless. Don’t be afraid to take the time to really look at job descriptions and what the requirements really are. Look at them through the lens of what you do as a teacher from pre-planning before school starts all the way until the end of the school year. I guarantee you will find things you’ve done that are applicable to the private sector.
“We truly embed our values in everything we do corporately, in teams, and in individual interactions.”
7. What are one or two things you love here?
I love the organizational culture at Goalbook. You read about how to build effective culture, but you rarely see it consistently across the board. We truly embed our values in everything we do corporately, in teams, and in individual interactions. I love that you see and feel this in all facets of our shared experiences (for example, our team weeks, conferences, 1:1 meetings with our managers, etc.).
8. What’s your favorite memory during your time at Goalbook?
In the fall of 2022, our cofounder Daniel and I were in a coffee chat where we both discussed how we played chess casually in high school. Daniel suggested that we should play chess in person at one of our team weeks.
At our Winter Week in 2023, I brought a chess set with me to see if Daniel wanted to play. Unfortunately, we were unable to play then. Several months later, at our Summer Week in June, Daniel came up to me on the first day and said, “Remember, we’re going to play chess!”
It had been 7–8 months since our initial conversation, but he remembered it and made the effort to come to me and ask to play. So one evening of that Summer Week, we got to play a game of chess together.
This spoke volumes to me that Daniel practices what he preaches. It made me grateful to work for a company that genuinely lives out its value of relationships.
9. What are you reading right now?
One of the commitments I made to myself after I left the school system was to start reading fiction again because everything I was reading for the past four or five years had been books about leadership, or about what’s changing in education and the educational landscape.
So right now I’m in the midst of the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly who wrote The Lincoln Lawyer. I’m about two books away from completing the series, so it’s been really fun to have time to disconnect from reality and get back into reading fiction. It’s nice to have the freedom to be able to let myself step into leisure time in my reading.
10. Early bird or night owl?
I’m a night owl by choice but an early bird by responsibility. One of the many things I was excited about in transitioning to this role was that I would finally be able to take my son to school. When I was an elementary teacher, I always had earlier starts to the day than my family, so I would be out of the house by the time he would leave for school. My wife was always the one responsible for either getting him to the bus or dropping him off at school. Now that I’m in this position, I want to make sure I’m the one driving him to school.
Goalbook is intentional about telling team members to prioritize their mental health, so I’ve been trying to make sure I have time for myself to go to the gym. I’m the type of person who rarely feels like going to the gym once the day gets going, and it’s 4:00 or 5:00 pm, and I’m wrapping up my day. For the past six to eight months, I’ve been getting up at 5:30 am so that I can prioritize my health and go to the gym. I make it home in time to take my son to school, walk the dog, and then get my work day started. That is what’s making me have to be an early bird, though I prefer to be a night owl. I’m trying to get my bedtime moved up a little earlier, but I have not been successful yet.
Explore Goalbook’s open jobs on our Careers Page.
Follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date on job opportunities.
Read more stories about the Culture at Goalbook here.
