About NSPRA
The Superintendents to Watch award recognizes school district leaders who have fewer than five years of experience as a superintendent and who demonstrate dynamic, fast-paced leadership with strong communication at its core.
Since becoming superintendent of the Issaquah School District, Heather Tow-Yick has made communication a defining feature of how the district leads, plans, and connects with its community. From school halls to civic stages, she has brought visibility, consistency, and a relationship-driven approach that has reshaped how families, staff, and partners experience the district.
“Superintendent Tow-Yick arrived in the ISD as a first-time superintendent three years ago and has proven to be a warm, visible, and effective communicator on behalf of schools and young people in our community.” — Barbara de Michele, Deputy Council President, City of Issaquah
A Leader Who Shows Up and Listens
Tow-Yick is known across Issaquah for being present. Whether she is attending school events, meeting with business leaders, or joining community gatherings, she prioritizes being accessible and approachable, using those moments to listen and learn.
“More than that, when she is in the community, whether at a high school football game or a business forum, she is approachable; she listens carefully and uses what she hears to inform her approach to serving students and teachers in the school district.” — Janet Kelly, Director, Government and Community Affairs, Puget Sound Energy
That steady presence has helped build relationships across the city, strengthening collaboration between the school district, local organizations, and service providers.
Communication That Meets People Where They Are
When Superintendent Tow-Yick led ISD’s three-year strategic plan, she made communication a core pillar, ensuring it was embedded across student well-being, academic opportunity, diverse talent, authentic engagement and organizational effectiveness. Communication objectives are now paired with measurable metrics, feedback systems and clear accountability measures. For example, progress toward each priority is reported to the school board through health indicators, board work studies, and regular meeting presentations that draw on achievement data, state report cards, business intelligence, survey results, social-emotional learning metrics and attendance trends. This transparency ensures families and staff understand both achievements and challenges.
Tow-Yick ensured that communication is supported by aligned systems across the district. The district's communications plan runs parallel to the strategic plan, integrating regular review cycles and communication editorial engagement calendars. Department and some school leaders now include communication objectives in their program plans and annual school improvement plans, linking classroom initiatives directly to district priorities. Family engagement benchmarks show steady growth, with increasing percentages of families reporting they feel informed about district decisions and trust district leadership. For example, in the last two years, family survey data indicate that over 80 percent of respondents feel “informed about district priorities,” a seven-percentage point increase since Tow-Yick’s tenure.
Tow-Yick also prioritized multi-channel engagement to reach ISD’s diverse community of 40,000 families and almost 20,000 students. Information is shared through newsletters, social media, town halls, video updates, multilingual notifications and community forums. Data dashboards provide timely, accessible updates on student achievement, safety, equity initiatives, operational measures and finances. Student voice is amplified through panels, surveys and advisory committees, ensuring that families and staff see that decision-making is informed by those most affected by district initiatives.
Authentic engagement is a central focus of the strategic plan, ensuring students, families and staff have meaningful opportunities to contribute to district decisions. Tow-Yick has embedded co-design practices and ongoing feedback loops across schools and departments, creating a culture where constituent input informs policies, programs and initiatives. These structures ensure engagement is purposeful, equitable and reflective of the district’s diverse community. She has also strengthened and formalized partnerships with businesses, nonprofits and community associations, including the Issaquah Schools Foundation and local PTSAs, to provide additional resources, volunteer support, grants, internships and other opportunities that directly benefit students and reinforce authentic engagement.
Tow-Yick has also strengthened internal communications to ensure staff engagement mirrors external clarity. Weekly updates, video briefings and web dashboards align staff with district goals. Staff report increased confidence in district leadership, reflected in a Net Promoter Score of 24 among all employees during the 2024-25 school year in response to the question, “How likely are you to recommend ISD as a workplace?”
Tow-Yick’s approach ensures that communication is not an add-on but a foundational strategy. Every initiative is clearly messaged, progress is tracked, and the community sees the connection between actions and outcomes. This integration fosters trust, collaboration and shared ownership, making ISD a model for communication-driven leadership.
A Voice For Schools in the Community
Tow-Yick is also a regular presence in civic and business spaces. Each year, she joins the Issaquah mayor at the Chamber of Commerce’s State of the Schools and State of the City event, helping local leaders understand shared challenges and opportunities facing schools and the community. Just as important, she is known for listening as much as she speaks.
“Her leadership is collaborative, equity-focused, and deeply committed to listening to all voices. She values stakeholder input, builds trust, and fosters a culture where students and staff can thrive. Her approach demonstrates how thoughtful communication and strong partnerships can enhance both educational outcomes and community resilience.” — Janet Kelly, Director, Government and Community Affairs, Puget Sound Energy
Leadership Rooted in Connection
Through visibility, digital engagement, and consistent personal interaction, Tow-Yick has built a leadership presence that feels both modern and deeply human. Her approach connects systems with people and decisions with lived experience, creating a district culture where communication is not just a function of the job, but a reflection of how leadership is practiced every day.
Those who work alongside Tow-Yick describe communication as essential to how she leads, not something delegated or secondary to operations.
“I have seen how she treats communication as essential—not just for information-sharing, but for student well-being, community trust building and belonging.” — Mark Sherwood, Executive Director of Communications, Issaquah School District
B.A. - Mississippi State University; MPA - University of Georgia
I believe school PR/communications is what I was born to do! One of the biggest decisions a parent can make is where to send their child to school, and it’s an honor to share with our parents the engaging work that their children are doing under the guidance of world-class teachers and leaders. On any given day, in any given school, there are many stories to be told and I take that charge seriously. As school communicators played a key role in COVID-19 communications, storytelling was more important than ever – not only did I share information with parents about our protocols, but I also made over 80 visits to schools last year and told a variety of stories about how students were thriving with both in-person and distance learning options. I also worked with principals to determine best mitigation practices and helped make those pervasive, because positive action must be the foundation of what we are ultimately communicating. School public relations is incredibly complex and I love that each day brings a new challenge.
My greatest school PR success was completing 11 nationally-innovative school communication audits using a process of research, planning, implementation, and evaluation. I am now in phase two of this project and am attending school council meetings to garner feedback from parents about school-level communication and how I can better support the work of their schools. One of the most significant findings is that as students take more ownership of their learning, they also take more ownership in parent communication. Therefore, next steps are to better prepare parents for this transition and to also determine best practices from exemplar teachers and coaches at the secondary level so we can strike the right balance with parents feeling informed and fostering student independence.
My greatest school PR challenge is overcoming rigidity. Like many PR professionals, I am detail-oriented and a self-described perfectionist. It’s a blessing and a curse to see when something is one pixel off, but the greatest challenge I have faced in my 13 years in this field is to learn to be more flexible. I might have an aversion to Comic Sans or Curlz, but it’s not the end of the world if those are a font favorite elsewhere. What’s more important is the bigger picture – staff and parents feeling well-informed and students growing and learning in positive school cultures. Instead of telling someone their website isn’t formatted properly, I now make a 2-3 minute screencast if I think there’s a quick tutorial I can offer to provide ongoing professional learning. By being much more flexible, I have deepened relationships and become better at supporting the most important job that occurs in our school system: teaching.
My favorite part of my job is the relationships. I often say that there is no substitute for showing up, and that’s why I make so many school visits each year. From getting to hold a gorgeous monarch butterfly to watching a vibrant student musical to seeing 3-D printing in action from engineering students, I have witnessed countless unique opportunities, and these experiences are just a small piece of what our students get to take part in each and every day. If I didn’t take the time to form relationships, I wouldn’t know that what students value is knowing that the photos I take may show up in their yearbooks. I wouldn’t know the myriad of annual activities that teachers do across our schools because I wouldn’t have witnessed them firsthand. I wouldn’t know about the families of our principals or what they believe makes their school unique. All of that is invaluable because at the end of the day and at the end of this career, relationships are what will remain – both professionally and personally.
The communication tool I use the most is Canva! I would be a brand ambassador if they asked! I am not very mathematically-minded and it can be challenging for someone with an eye for good design – but not an eye for rulers and gridlines – to be a graphic designer. However, Canva has made it possible and I am able to create aesthetically-pleasing graphics with short turn-around times. I have trained communication ambassadors at our schools how to use it as well. Right after Canva, the tool I most use is iMovie. I am completely self-taught in videography and using iMovie and Canva together has made me someone who can add “videographer” to their list of expertise.