The Attollo Professional Development Series is a podcast featuring real conversations with leaders and changemakers across industries. Each episode explores the journeys, challenges, and lessons behind meaningful careers. Recorded at Attollo HQ, these candid discussions offer insight on leadership, growth, and purpose for students, young professionals, and anyone looking to level up.
Ryan Shank | Attollo Professional Development Series
What does it look like to build a creative institution from scratch, and what does film have to do with the health of a community?
In this Professional Development Series session, Ryan Shank, founder and Executive Director of the Red Rose Film Festival, shares the story behind one of Lancaster County’s most distinctive cultural institutions. Now in its seventh year, RRFF celebrates character-driven storytelling through categories including Best Picture, Best Short Film, Best Documentary, Best Student Film, and The Red Rose Award for Central PA filmmakers. Ryan’s career has taken him through Warner Bros., the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open, small business development, nonprofit leadership, and higher education, and every chapter shaped how he thinks about building things that communities actually need. His philosophy is simple: meaningful opportunities are not found, they are built through trust, persistence, and the willingness to begin before every answer is known.
This conversation covers what it took to build the festival, how film functions as community infrastructure, and what emerging creatives and entrepreneurs can learn from someone who started something the world had not asked for yet.
12 Oct 2026
Dr. Pedro Rivera | Attollo Professional Development Series
What does it look like to spend an entire career fighting for students who the system too often leaves behind?
In this Professional Development Series session, Dr. Pedro Rivera, President of Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, shares the journey that took him from bilingual classroom teacher in Philadelphia to Pennsylvania Secretary of Education and beyond. A first-generation college graduate and Philadelphia native, Dr. Rivera has led at every level of public education, including as Superintendent of the School District of Lancaster, where he built a community schools model that addressed students' academic and basic human needs together. Honored by the White House as a Champion of Change in 2014 and named a 2024-2025 Aspen Presidents Fellow, he has been one of the most recognized voices in American education for equity, access, and student success.
This conversation explores what it means to lead with purpose, how education and opportunity are connected, and what young people need to understand about the systems that shape their lives and how to navigate them.
29 Sept 2026
Dr. Christina Pantoja Williams | Attollo Professional Development Series
What does it mean to build a career around the students who need someone in their corner the most?
In this Professional Development Series session, recorded during Hispanic Heritage Month, Dr. Christina Pantoja Williams, Director of Academic Engagement and Community Partnerships at Millersville University, shares a story that is both personal and professional. A first-generation Latina college student herself, Dr. Williams earned her bachelor's degree in Sociology from Millersville, her master's in educational leadership from Temple University, and her doctorate from West Chester University before returning to build something lasting for the students who came after her. She founded the Ville First-Generation program in 2018, advises First Gems, partners with Lancaster's Latinx community to increase college access, and was honored with the 2024 Keepers of the Flame Award for her work in equity and belonging.
This conversation explores what it means to lead from lived experience, how to build a career rooted in access and community, and why Dr. Williams believes life is less like a straight road and more like a roller coaster worth riding.
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