One School Leader’s Journey to “Think Bigger” and Lead with Purpose

When Chien (Ray) Nee talks about his journey into school leadership, he credits the encouragement he received from his father to, “Think bigger.” But Nee’s journey to becoming a transformational education leader is one marked not just by ambition, but by a deep-rooted desire to change lives.

“I was honestly more of the rebel in my family,” he shares. “My family wanted to talk me out of pursuing the field of education and teaching. But I saw the needs in our public schools, and at age 16 I decided that I wanted to change the lives of others. And that's what I did.”

That conviction led him into the classroom, where he saw firsthand the potential to shape futures. Year after year, student after student, his impact grew, and so did his vision. That’s when he knew it was time to expand his reach through school leadership.

“I wanted to impact more students, not just the ones in my own classroom,” he said. 

After returning home from visiting his father in the hospital in Asia, and hearing his father’s call to “think bigger," he set a goal to become an assistant principal within five years. Looking back, he credits New Leaders with helping him meet and even exceeded that goal.

He joined New Leaders’ Emerging Leaders program, then advanced into the Aspiring Principals program. Along the way, he honed not just his instructional vision, but also his ability to coach others, build relationships, and lead with clarity and purpose.

Nee’s path to district leadership included serving as a principal of a K–8 charter school in Prince George’s County and as both an assistant principal and resident principal in Baltimore City Public Schools. Across every role, he’s remained focused on one mission: growing others to better serve students.

Today, Nee is living out that “think big” vision serving as a district-level Performance Specialist for Prince George’s County Public Schools, where he supports, monitors, and evaluates the instructional programs across 122 elementary schools, collectively serving more than 60,000 students from diverse backgrounds, and helps train instructional directors (principal supervisors), school principals, and instructional leadership teams across the district.
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Leadership Lessons That Last

When asked what stuck with him most from his experience in the New Leaders program, he said it all came down to building relationships.

“Block time to purposefully build relationships with your instructional staff. They’re the ones doing the heavy lifting to move student growth.”

Building relationships did not come naturally to him. He recalls intentionally blocking off time to handwrite thank you notes to teachers and staff. He stressed the importance of treating people like people, and making sure they feel valued.

As he sees it, leaders are driving the school bus, but teachers are the engine. “You need every teacher on board to move the bus forward,” he explains. 

To improve instructional staff, Nee believes in the power of coaching and cultivating leadership and instructional skills with intent and purpose. 

Nee said, “As a leader, we really have to recognize the value of our instructional staff and celebrate their (and our students’) success!”

“Block time to purposefully build relationships with your instructional staff. They’re the ones doing the heavy lifting to move student growth.”

A Defining Moment

“My favorite and most memorable part of being a school leader is seeing all the hard work come to fruition when our state assessment data and our state report card drops,” said Nee.

Nee’s school reached four-star status on the Maryland Report Card for the first time, and held that rating throughout his tenure. 

“Something that I hold close to my heart to this day is to know that I truly made a difference in students’ and families’ lives.”

The Value of Communication

New Leaders didn’t just shape his leadership—it sharpened his voice.

“I already felt comfortable speaking in public, but New Leaders helped me grow as a communicator. From presenting to translating data into clear insights and creating concise, easy-to-understand data analysis and data visualization, all of that really boiled down to effective communication.”

He says his coaches and mentors at New Leaders really helped him personally and professionally, to hone the craft of communicating messaging clearly to all stakeholders. They taught him how to hold his ground and speak to the work, and how to listen intently and offer solutions and feedback when needed.
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Advice for Aspiring Principals

His message to teachers considering becoming a school principal: “Do it.”

“Stand on the work and what is best for students. Learn your content, get great at it, and the leadership skills will come. You don’t have to do everything at once, just focus on getting 1% better every day.”

He also urges aspiring leaders to find a mentor. Someone who can offer honest feedback, share tips, and walk alongside you as a thought partner. He believes having someone you can have an open dialogue with to give you the feedback to push you forward makes all the difference.
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“Stand on the work and what is best for students. Learn your content, get great at it, and the leadership skills will come. You don’t have to do everything at once, just focus on getting 1% better every day.”

Scaling Your Secret Sauce

Nee believes every great teacher has what he calls a “secret sauce”—those strategies and practices that help students achieve.

“Once you experience success as a teacher, you see the difference you can make in one classroom. Just imagine that you're taking your secret sauce that's in your classroom, the strategies you utilized to achieve those double digit academic gains, and being able to bottle that secret sauce and duplicate it for tens and hundreds of children.”

Once he saw his homeroom students making gains, he knew that he wanted to take his joy of teaching and learning and share that with a greater number of students by becoming a school leader to affect that change.

And with that mindset, he continues to do just that, by thinking bigger, developing educators, leading with intention, and helping shape the future of learning for thousands of students.