Interviewing Lamar Shingles

Interviewer: Annika Binstadt

Photo: MPA's website

Lamar Shingles (he/him/his), Director of Equity and Belonging at MPA, joined our community this fall. Students can call him Mr. Lamar or Mr. Shingles. If you would like to meet Mr. Shingles in-person, his office is in the Head of School’s office compound.

Q: Where were you working/living previously to joining MPA? 

A: I was living here in the Twin Cities, I was the Director of Student Life and Diversity at St. Paul College for three years, and previously had worked for a nonprofit at the University of Minnesota, as well as working at Hamline university for a number of years.

Q: What made you decide to come to MPA? What made you want to work with kids/in a high school?

A: I have always worked professionally in higher education and moving to a PreK-12 school seemed appealing both as a personal growth opportunity and as a way to connect with students over a longer period of time than I would get with them in a college setting. It was exciting that I could be able to impact students at a younger age, and MPA seemed to have something “behind” what it was trying to accomplish as a school, and I felt very welcomed when I came here to visit.

Q: What has been your favorite part of MPA so far?

A: The students are amazing. I have a two-year-old daughter and an eleven-year-old son, and because they are so different developmentally, the things we do at home rapidly change, as we could be listening to Baby Shark with my daughter one minute and playing Roblox with my son the next. Seeing a mirror of this developmental span at MPA and seeing everywhere from near toddlers to near adults walking the halls has been incredible, as well as everyone being so kind and interacting with me. I haven’t always had an experience where students would say hello to me in the hallways without previously knowing me, and that has just been incredible. To have a second grader, unprompted, say hello to you in the hallway is a really amazing experience.

Q: You already touched on this, but do you have any kids/pets/partners? If so, would you mind talking a little about them?

A: Yeah! I’ll brag about my family anytime. My wife, Kori Shingles, does similar work to what I do at MPA, but does it in a corporate environment at a large construction firm. My son Jayden is eleven and is going into seventh grade. He is just super sweet, sensitive, and kind, and is his own person and just who we want him to be. He is quirky and expressive, and wears mis-matched socks because that’s what he likes and how he expresses himself. My daughter Raya is a two-year-old trailblazer. She is no nonsense, she is cute and fun, but she is Miss Independent. She is the kid you say “come back or we’re leaving you” to, and she just keeps walking the other direction. I just know she is going to be a super independent, assertive woman, and I couldn’t ask for anything better in either of them. My family is just the most important thing in the world to me.

Q: The Winter Olympics are going on now. Have there been any winter sports to pique your interest, either to watch or to play?

A: I’m not from Minnesota originally, so I didn’t grow up with a lot of winter sports. I am a big fan of the USA when it comes to the Olympics. I come from a sporty family: my stepmother was the athletic trainer in the 1996 Olympics for tennis, and so that is where I get my USA Olympic energy. I think curling is fun to watch, as it doesn’t seem like it should be a sport but is actually incredibly technical and because it mirrors my personality of being super technical but sneaking up on you as fun and entertaining.

Q: Is there anything else you want students to know about you?

A: Being new to MPA, I am doing a lot of observing and meeting people. I am working, but I am looking in the shadows a bit to see how MPA operates in the “wild.” There is a lot we can do to improve the experience for students, for teachers, and for the community as a whole. Being able to understand where opportunities to make change are at MPA has been my number one job so far. I used to live with students, so I am used to being around students all the time. Having students in my office, yelling, and joking around is a normal day for me and I love that environment. I would love to get to know more students. Stop by to say hi, to get candy, or on the more serious side, if there are issues, please stop by. If there is anything unsafe, or there is any sort of misconduct, or just something you overheard in the hallway that you didn’t think was quite right, I love listening and being able to have those conversations. I try to be an open door, so don’t be intimidated to just stop by. I want to be able to learn and support students and having conversations with students is an important step to doing that.

Q: If you could see one thing in the future of MPA, what would it be?

A: I would like to see our community really embrace that “Dream Big, Do Right.”. I think there are a lot of dreamers here, and I think we do a lot of things right, but we could always do better. I would love to see a place that isn’t afraid to do something that no one else is doing. That is intentionally broad, because I don’t like being boxed in too much, but whether it is how we teach or what opportunities we present to students, I would like to see MPA kick the status quo to the curb and try really fun, exciting, and innovative things.

Thank you to Mr. Lamar Shingles for this interview! Welcome to MPA; we are so happy to have you.