Real Talk on Public Schools & AI | Sheryl Lee Ralph | Dreamforce 2026

Please welcome Sonja Norman, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Dr. Maria Su. Good morning, Dreamforce. How we doing? I appreciate each and every one of you getting up early, caffeinating, getting to Yerba Buena for this incredible conversation. These ladies with me are epic. They are not only incredible humans, incredible professionals, but folks who have given their lives dedicated to lifting up others and solving systemic challenges. So it's a true honor to be with you.

Thank you.

My name is Sonja Norman. I lead impact at Salesforce, and we have with us the incredible Sheryl Lee Ralph, Emmy Award—

Thank you.

Oh, thank you.

I can tell all of you in the crowd know her, Emmy Award-winning actress, but maybe more importantly for this conversation, you've used your role on a show that displays education in an elementary school to lean in as a philanthropist, as an activist, and now you are really one of the leading authorities on improving our education system. So thank you so much for being here.

Thank you, thank you.

And I wanna also welcome Dr. Maria Su.

Yay!

Who's been a longtime partner of Salesforce, leads the school system here, San Francisco Unified School District, as the superintendent. Almost 50,000 students are under your care. Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you. Thank you.

So, Sheryl, let's start with you. Through your Abbott Elementary role and your advocacy, you spotlight what heart and grit comes to life in the classroom. But what have you really learned about what teachers actually need? You know, there's the showbiz reality on the show Abbott Elementary, but you've gotten into the classroom. What do teachers tell you?

You know something? Teachers are so very happy that there is a show that has such global appeal on the subject of education called Abbott Elementary. And the way we— thank you, you can applaud that. And the way we are able to respectfully shine the light on educators, teachers, principals, superintendents, all of those who come to our schools every day with the mission in mind to educate other people's children. But now we've gotten to the point where a lot of these teachers, they don't need you to tell them just how special they are anymore. They need you to show them.

Mm.

They need people to show up. people to really be involved. They need people to uplift education, not just for some children, but for all children, no matter what their zip code is.

Yes, yes.

That's what they really need right now. And we were discussing backstage how we find it so difficult to that still right now people want to downplay the importance of education. The greatest gift that I have ever been given is that of a good, solid education and going on to higher education. And I'm telling you, one of these days I'm gonna get my doctorate.

Yeah! Well, if we could give you one right now, If we had a DJ right here, we would, but that's not what we're here for, but maybe next year.

Next year.

Dr. Sue, thinking about building on what Cheryl just said, I know every day you think about that quality education for everyone. Again, depend— not dependent on your zip code, who your parents are, your status, every single child. What are the elements that set a school system up for success?

Well, first, I just want to double down and appreciate Cheryl for what you just said, because without the leader in the classroom each and every day giving their all, there will be no classroom. There would be no public education system. So we always need to acknowledge that whatever it is that we place in the classroom, the key person in there are the educators.

That's right.

And we need to support support and invest in our educators so that they can then pour love and investment in our students.

Absolutely.

And, you know, I have to say that at this moment in time, a lot of people are trying to tell school districts and superintendents like myself what the future is going to look like. We can't really predict the future, right? We can't— we actually don't even know what tools are going to still be around in the next 5 years, let alone 5 months. I still remember a time when everyone was saying having a calculator in the classroom was going to ruin math for everybody. That's right.

Yeah.

But you know what? Our students are pulling out their graphing calculators and using Desmos in their advanced math and calculus classes.

That's right.

But at the same time, who here is still using MySpace? Yeah, exactly. So we can't tell the future.

That's right.

We don't know what's still going to be around in the next couple of years. What we do know is that we have a responsibility, I have a responsibility to take care of the 50,000 students that are in our care right now, making sure that they have the best education possible, and that means having High-quality teachers in our classrooms investing in the relationship, the human relationship in the classroom so that these students will have the critical learning skills, the critical rational skills, the analytical skills to set them up for whatever the future will hold.

That's it.

And you know, that's— I love what you just said because I love technology. OK, Barbara Howard is terrible at it. But I love technology. But here we are at a time when everybody wants to talk about the future, the future, when in Philadelphia, we're still trying to get kids on the internet.

Oh my goodness, yes.

You know, we're still trying to get kids access. We're still trying to get teachers, some like Barbara Howard, to actually know how to use the technology. So when you talk about, you know, investing in the best teachers, it's— we can't just have it out there and then we don't support the teachers, the educators, well enough to use the technology to the greater advantage of everyone.

That's such a powerful point. And I had the privilege of being at an AI for Good summit in Geneva this summer. And one of the reasons I really wanted to go was to get out of the Silicon Valley bubble. It is truly unique here, you know, working in the tech sector as a leading agentic company. It's easy to forget, and what I was reminded by the ministers from countries in Africa, there's still billions of people who don't have reliable access to electricity.

Ah.

So you can't be talking about AI-powered education if you can't even get the lights on, if kids can't even do their homework at night. That's right.

That's right.

So we— I think it's our shared responsibility to remember that our individual experience is not representative of the entire world.

That's right. That deserves a round of applause.

Thank you. I want to go wherever Sheryl goes.

I know, I know. What you just said requires us all to rethink what we think we thought, meaning we must be able to see other human beings as whole people.

Yes.

We have to be able to look at people with their differences, wherever they come from, whatever shade, and think about them as a whole human being. human being and not just bring what you thought about those people. Because sometimes when you do that, you make the decision not to give them what they need based upon what you think about those people.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Dr. Sue, for you, talking about investing in your teachers, I think what I think what Cheryl just said also applies to teachers. They're whole humans. They have their own kids, their own families, things going on. How do you think about retaining great teachers, seeing the whole person behind the title of Teacher Smith or what have you?

Well, in San Francisco, we really work closely with all of our educators because, again, Just, I keep going back to technology is not going to be the answer to the equity gap that we have. It's going to be human relationship. It's going to be education. And that part of that equation is that we need to support our educators to learn how to use tools, to learn how to use technology in the safest way possible.

Yes.

But in order for us to do that, we need to understand the tools. We need to acknowledge that there are lots of students who, just because you give them a tool, they're not going to be able to use it, use it safely, and use it well. You know, during the pandemic in San Francisco, we opened up these learning hubs because we recognized that, yes, we're grateful for everyone who donated a Chromebook to our students.

Yes.

But we were deepening the divide because some of our students didn't have access to stable Wi-Fi. Yes, in the heart of San Francisco, in a city that was the birthplace of the internet, we still have huge disparities, and we need to recognize that. We need to see and meet our students, our staff, our community where they are and create programs and services that will then support and bring everyone along. Because we can't just say, check off the box, we gave them the tool.

Ah.

And good luck. That's not public education. That is not education. And quite frankly, that is not the responsibility of caring adults in our system. We need to be responsible and we have to do it right. So we have to invest in the people to train our people up. We have to invest in communities that don't have access, and we need to work at this every single day, and it takes all of us.

Beautiful.

Yes, it does.

We gathered together all of your middle school principals earlier this year, and I was listening to them. We had a celebration. A, we thanked them because that's a Oh, middle school is rough, guys.

Middle school is rough.

And I was asking them about what does their normal day look like, and they all shared how lonely it can feel as the lead of a school. And I never had thought about that before. You know, sometimes you're the only adult. If you're a teacher in a classroom of 25, you're the only adult in the room for the entire day. You know, the principal like the mayor of their own town, running around sometimes literally putting out fires, but, you know, dealing with everything from personnel issues to a student's crisis. And so I love what you're underlining around the human connection, and I know a lot of our philanthropic funding has helped to bring teachers together, provide them professional development, mentors, support, coaches, Because it can just be so isolating as an— and as an educator. Cheryl, to switch gears a little bit, you often talk about how Black educators have played a really critical role in your own journey. Talk to me a little bit more about how you think about representation in education, and what do we all need to be doing to ensure we have those role models and those individuals who can change the trajectory of someone's life.

You know something? It's interesting. When I think about representation, when I think about things like diversity, those things are not decoration for me. They are important in this country, across our country, We need to be able, like I said earlier, see each other as whole human beings. When a child can see themself represented in the classroom by the teacher, by the person in the lunchroom, by the principal, by all of those educators, it shows them a different pathway.

Mm-hmm.

And some— for some students, that's all they need is to be seen a different pathway. When I was a young woman and we were getting out there talking about education, I was shocked how many young people in South Central LA had never been to the beach.

Mm.

Never been to the beach. They had no pathway to the beach. You get into a classroom, when you have that right teacher that might look a little bit like you, or you know that teacher can really see you and your possibilities, the pathway becomes clearer. A lot of you are here today because some teacher saw something in you that made you believe, whoa, I can do this. That was done for me over and over and over. It's still being done for me now. I'm still becoming Sheryl Lee Ralph because of the great teachers that I see out there representing. And if you wanna get more kids to get up there as educators, You gotta put time into them. You now have the ability as leaders yourself. Show up in these schools. Mentor some of these kids. Scholarship some of these kids. Hire some of these kids. Show them a different road. What do they say? The greatest thing a poor kid can have is a rich friend. Because you see a different direction. You see what is possible for you. And I thank God for all of the teachers that were there for me that said, Sheryl Lee Ralph, sit down, shut up, do your work.

Yes.

Well, I think one thing all of us can do after we leave here is go send a thank you note to that teacher that you just thought of when Sheryl was saying, who's that one teacher? Maybe there's several. Go shoot them a note because I'm pretty sure we don't thank our teachers enough.

That's right.

That's right.

Yeah.

Dr. Hsu, I'm sure there's a lot of companies that approach you and they say, we want to do something for education. What turns that talk into meaningful action? What does a real partnership look like? How do philanthropists— how should they actually be engaging with schools?

Yeah, and the thing about investing in schools, investing in students, investing in humans is that it's for the long run.

Yes.

Right?

It's a marriage. And if you commit to us, we'll commit to you and we'll work together to make it fantastic.

Yes.

And I wanted to take the opportunity to just talk about the partnership that SFUSD have had with Salesforce for almost 14 years now. And it's not just a one-and-done situation. It's not a, we'll jump in for the press conference or for the press release and for this and that. It's really about talking to our principals and asking them, what do you need? How can we support you so that you can have the time, the energy, the mental well-being to support your educators?

That's right.

Who will then in turn support your students. So having long-term relationships with the funder, with any person who wants to support our schools is key. You know, the one thing about Salesforce, the partnership we have with Salesforce, is that we, through the past 14 years, have been able to double girls' access to STEM classes.

Wow.

Right? Saying to girls, you belong in the rooms where coding happens. You belong in the rooms where innovation, science, technology is happening. Because that's a message that we haven't been doing and providing for our young ladies. It's also a partnership where we say we support educators because we know you cannot be successful in your classroom if you don't have the training, the resources, the tools to be successful.

That's right.

You know, we've been hearing a lot about the Mississippi Miracle. Right? So it's about this revolutionary change in Mississippi of how students one day magically all learned how to read. No, it took 20 years. It took $100 million of investment and millions and millions and millions of hours of time and energy, relationship building, training, professional development.

Yeah.

to get to the Mississippi Miracle. That's what we need. We need all of us to come together and invest in our students, not just one day, not just one year, but many years. It's a long— it's a long game.

Yes.

And, you know, just imagine if we invest in our kindergartens today, 13 years later, imagine what world they are going to be able to give into and support.

Cheryl, you're also a philanthropist. What have you learned about trust-based philanthropy? How do you think about approaching community-based groups, schools? What, what's the pearls of wisdom that you've learned the hard way?

First of all, funding, funding, funding. More funding, funding, funding. It is so I started out saying that all children deserve the best education that we can give them, no matter where they live, which means sometimes you gotta walk on the dark side. Sometimes you've got to go where you thought you would never go to make the deepest amount of change. I was a young woman. Denzel and I had this thing where we went into schools, and we went every year for the Christmas holidays. We talked to these kids, and we gave them a gift.

Mm. I—

we grew up— one day, I'm driving into the parking lot of a shopping mall. There's a young man sitting in the booth. He turns, and he says, Miss Ralph, You and Denzel came to the projects. I got a talk and a toy. I got a job.

Right on.

That is the long term. Sometimes it's just to be able to have the job, to be able to stand up and appreciate yourself. Because some of these kids, they didn't think they would have a job.

Mm-hmm.

They didn't think anybody appreciated them. But somebody came to talk to them with consistency and give them something. Those are the kind of investments we really need. Time, talent, and tithe, they say in church. Your time is important. Your talents are important, what you can give others. Don't just throw money at the subject. Throw yourself, and like Dr. Sue said, make that long-term commitment. If you do it for your child, do it for somebody else's child too.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Well, thank you for your many decades of commitment. Thanks to Denzel as well. I didn't know that story.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Su, to turn back to the technology, we talked about how there's a lot of things that we still need to get right. We have to focus on the safety of technology, the ethics, the guardrails, policies. Assuming we get those things in place, what's the most exciting application of artificial intelligence in the classroom or in a school setting? We've heard a lot about personalized learning. That's the thing that always comes up in the conversations I have. But when you, when you allow yourself to dream big, what are the ways you think that AI could actually be applied to improve education?

As I shared, technology is just a tool, right? It's one aspect of learning. The other aspects of learning— actually, learning is a 5th sense. It's a full 5 senses, right? We're going to activate every part of a student's mind, body, and soul. So for us, it's really about how do we put a tool, a program in front of our students that's going to make them, like, hear things, feel things, smell things, and touch, and just really motivate them to learn more. At the end, at the— honestly, at the end of the day, at the center of learning is curiosity.

Mm.

How is it that we're going to be able to spark that sense of curiosity for our students so that they can want to continue to learn, to want to continue to explore whatever it is that is put in front of them? Because if we say, stop, you're done, we're finished here, what message are we telling our students?

Yes.

They need to know that it isn't just the textbook in front of them or the tool in front of them. It's them continuing to learn, continuing to push the agenda. And at the end of the day, a student learns through their entire system. We have to bring in our families. We have to bring in our communities so that we are truly building generational learning and the long-term investment in our students.

Yes.

Wow, I've never heard someone talk about learning as a 5 senses experiment, but that makes total sense, right? I think I can still smell what some of my classrooms smelled like 10 years ago, right?

Okay, I meant good food, good school lunches, maybe the science projects.

No, but it's so true. You know, you really— every kid gets captured differently. You know, maybe some are auditory learners, visual learners, experiential. So it's such a powerful point.

You know, it's interesting what you're saying because when we think about all of these great movements in time, there was a time in entertainment where people said, who wants to hear people talk on the screen? That'll ruin the experience. They didn't want talkies. There was a time when people said, nobody wants to talk through this thing. They— a telephone? It'll ruin everything. There was a time when people said, a microphone will ruin the real voice experience. There was a time when people said, movies. It will ruin television. Now we've got this big thing, AI. Like everything before it, we had to figure out the guardrails. How could we use these great innovations properly? It is the same thing with this new technology. What are the guardrails we will put in place?

Yes.

How will we protect not just our children, but our overall communities and do it from an educated human response?

Well, with, with our students at the center, making sure that we understand the tools that we're putting in front of our students, making sure that we train our educators to use the tools right. We can put the best tool in front of our educators, but if they're not trained, no student will be served.

Barbara Howard knows that.

Well, I want to end with the conversation we had backstage about how none of us can predict the future, but right now we can be present for our children. And what did you say? They need love.

And they— all of our children need love in this moment right now.

Encouragement, uplifting, because we don't really Well, thank you both so much, and I want to celebrate the fact that you have a book coming up.

Thank you. Brand new book coming out called You Better Love What You See, April 6th, and you can preorder it now. Thank you.

Another huge round of applause to world-renowned World-class educator and superintendent. And woman of all talents, Cheryl. Thank you both so much. Thank you.

Thank you.

I know.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone. Enjoy your day.