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Our guest on this episode is Dr. Annise Mabry, a woman who spent years in public education as a teacher and administrator. When the public-school system failed her children, again and again, she took her knowledge, passion, and experience to create a solution that worked for her family, and for others. Tiers Free Academy was born out of the need for an alternate model.

When Dr. Mabry realized that a different model of education would be best for her children, she researched what she needed to do; she learned about the laws and was inspired and empowered by what she learned. But, she didn’t just stop at helping her children, she continued on to create a program that would support others in their homeschool journey. She pursued non-profit status and created a school and system that allows her to not only help students of all ages receive their high school diploma, but also empower families to support their children in their educational pursuits.

Dr. Mabry Practices Educational Disobedience

Thankfully, Dr. Mabry doesn’t get bogged down by people telling her she can’t do something, and she doesn’t stop when something gets hard. When she was told she could be a great administrator if only she was obedient (our host, Sara’s jaw dropped when she heard this!), she realized that she was going to practice educational disobedience in an effort to do what was right for the students she worked with. She has a book out that talks all about Educational Disobedience and shares more about her story and experiences.

Dr. Mabry has created an academy that not only supports students, but also their families. When she started homeschooling, there weren’t the number of groups and type of support that you can often find now. We’re thankful that she’s developed one of the programs that really aims to help students of all ages (she recently gave honorary diplomas to individuals in their 60s!) and the family members who support them.

We love the passion that Dr. Mabry brings to everything, and she has that much passion for Transcript Maker too! If we had a fan club, she’d be the president. We know that people have questions or concerns about moving away from their usual ways of managing transcripts, but Dr. Mabry reminds us of the reasons manual transcripts don’t really work and she shares what she loves about Transcript Maker. All members of the Transcript Maker team blushed while making this episode!

Resources Mentioned:
Learn more about Tiers Free Academy
Pick up Dr. Mabry’s book, Educational Disobedience
Why you probably want to move away from manual transcripts
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