Oct 10, 2026 · 34 min · 12 segments
Rob Martinez, the resilience guy, shares his 38-year career journey from school psychologist to superintendent, emphasizing the importance of caring for people and building relationships. He…
It was, uh, 1989, and so I had been a psychologist for a couple of years, and we said, "Okay, I gotta get into this place." And so the principal was kinda meeting people at a coffee shop, and so I went and I met him, and we talked for a while.
And he's like, "Wait, are you interviewing me or am I interviewing you?" I said, "Well, if we're gonna do this, we have to do it right." And, uh, you know, some psychologists really did a lot of testing on students and, and that's part of the job.
But what I wanted to do was create an atmosphere and an environment where our teachers had support, our families had support, and kids had direct support as well.
So we really worked to engage the community of educators and the team around us to kind of create a response to what our students needed.
And so we really focused on building foundational practices about how we get along on the playground-
And that was just the most wondrous opportunity to be part of a team of people where I think some of the original folks that I worked with are finally retiring this last year, but they had stayed there for over 30 years.
And so, but it was a great place to get to work with families and teachers and earn that trust, if you will, to be in classrooms and seeing what happens.
Because sometimes our school psychologist friends and, will do work outside in the office and nobody knows, "Well, are you working with that child over there all alone?" And I said, "I wanna work in the classrooms.
I wanna be there learning from the teachers, learning their crafts, learning their, their art form so that I can help the student survive in that world, not just survive in the office or outside of the classroom, so they can do some things that will work for them." So I had a great opportunity to do that.
You guys were working together to build the foundation to set the students up for success.
And when I did that, I had a parent, her, her child was autistic, and I had worked very closely with her and her child, and she looked at me one day and she said, "Brandi, why are you going to the dark side?"
It was, uh, 1989, and so I had been a psychologist for a couple of years, and we said, "Okay, I gotta get into this place." And so the principal was kinda meeting people at a coffee shop, and so I went and I met him, and we talked for a while.
And he's like, "Wait, are you interviewing me or am I interviewing you?" I said, "Well, if we're gonna do this, we have to do it right." And, uh, you know, some psychologists really did a lot of testing on students and, and that's part of the job.
But what I wanted to do was create an atmosphere and an environment where our teachers had support, our families had support, and kids had direct support as well.
So we really worked to engage the community of educators and the team around us to kind of create a response to what our students needed.
And so we really focused on building foundational practices about how we get along on the playground-
And that was just the most wondrous opportunity to be part of a team of people where I think some of the original folks that I worked with are finally retiring this last year, but they had stayed there for over 30 years.
And so, but it was a great place to get to work with families and teachers and earn that trust, if you will, to be in classrooms and seeing what happens.
Because sometimes our school psychologist friends and, will do work outside in the office and nobody knows, "Well, are you working with that child over there all alone?" And I said, "I wanna work in the classrooms.
I wanna be there learning from the teachers, learning their crafts, learning their, their art form so that I can help the student survive in that world, not just survive in the office or outside of the classroom, so they can do some things that will work for them." So I had a great opportunity to do that.
You guys were working together to build the foundation to set the students up for success.
And when I did that, I had a parent, her, her child was autistic, and I had worked very closely with her and her child, and she looked at me one day and she said, "Brandi, why are you going to the dark side?"
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