Meet Leanne Tormey, EdD

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Leanne Tormey, EdD. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Leanne below.

Hi Leanne, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

Early in life, I was encouraged to develop a position of gratitude and to identify opportunity in every challenge. I credit my parents, my grandmother, and my outstanding teachers for modeling these attitudes and for leading me through the early challenges I faced, including struggling as a young reader and striving to feel secure among my peers. I was fortunate to have keen observation skills, an intuitively empathetic nature, and a love of writing as tools for processing my thinking. Throughout my life, I have reached for these strategies as I strive to build resilience, which is best evidenced in this season of life through my personal battle against breast cancer.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

For more than twenty years, I developed my craft as a public and charter school educator in the Northeast and, approximately ten years ago, I pivoted into the nonprofit space to leverage my education background in ways that would serve the larger community. Having served as a teacher, school leader and Superintendent of Schools in Connecticut, I now serve as the Executive Director of Horizons at New Canaan Country School – an organization transforming the lives of underserved children and youth through year-round academic and enrichment programs to inspire learning, encourage success, and close the opportunity gap. This work is infectious, joyful and most certainly, mission driven.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Three qualities that have served me well are my ability to listen and observe deeply, my interest in asking powerful questions, and my willingness to put myself in the shoes of others. Each has served me well as I’ve faced challenges, in that they have allowed me to learn from the experiences of others.
Developing these skills has meant years of practice and allowing myself time and grace to reflect when I’ve strayed from my commitment to exercising each skill. I’ve learned that I can do heard things.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

I am currently waging a personal battle against breast cancer. Diagnosed in December of 2024, I am several months into a journey that feels far longer. I view this fight as a marker for a season of my life, and one in which the only option is victory. However, the challenges of living with cancer, participating in treatment as a woman in her 50s, striving to be a committed partner and a working professional as well as a member of a broader community are complex. I am grateful to have health insurance, reliable transportation, doctors who take my questions seriously and access to state-of-the-art treatment. I am so blessed.