SEASON 2 EPISODE 6 |Flourish in the Foreign - Black Women Living & Thriving Abroad

In this episode of, Flourish in the Foreign, Adrienne discusses how her career in education has professionally evolved in Qatar, China, and Kuwait.

Meet Adrienne

Adrienne M Waller is originally from Metro Detroit, Michigan, USA. She started her expat journey at the age of 5 when her mother moved her to Germany. From this point, the desire to see more than just the United States flowed through her veins. While at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Adrienne was allowed to conduct research in South Africa. This experience reignited her passion to explore the world.

After graduating, Adrienne became an AmeriCorps*VISTA working with public schools in Washington. This experience led her to become a teacher through the Chicago Teaching Fellows program. While in Chicago, Adrienne developed her teacher identity. After seven years in Chicago, Adrienne returned home to educate and lead in Detroit, Michigan. This personal reset allowed Adrienne to think about the next steps in her life journey. While Adrienne and her mother began to take cruises. This quick travel re-lit a fire to see the world. Soon she was packing her bags to move to Doha, Qatar as a teacher.

While abroad, Adrienne was able to quickly advance her career from simply teacher leader to administrative leader. Adrienne was able to highlight her skillset and take advantage of the transient nature of international education. She was able to support teachers in developing skills to strengthen their teaching practice. To support this work, she developed www.worldwideeducator.org as a place to house the professional development resources she developed and give educators tools to improve their daily practices.

Today, Adrienne has been in education for 15 years doing parent involvement work, teaching, and leadership; serving in public, private, and charter schools in the US, Qatar, China, and Kuwait. Her leadership learning includes earning a Cambridge Leadership Certificate, a Michigan School Administrator’s Certificate, and a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Certificate. Matched with her leadership qualifications is a teaching certificate in Illinois for Elementary Education, Special Education, Middle School Social Studies, and Middle School Math as well as a teaching certificate in Michigan for Elementary Education and Middle School Mathematics.

Adrienne is the owner of Worldwide Educator, LLC an education consulting company focused on empowering educators to own their instructional genius while activating students. Beyond this, Adrienne seeks to help BIPOC educators begin an international teaching journey through her “Take Your Talents Abroad” three-module course. She has worked with educators across the country and the world (currently in the Cayman Islands as an Assistant Principal) on a variety of topics including but not limited to Differentiated Instruction, Student-Centered Learning, and Effective English Language Arts Instruction.

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