Hattrick: ‘I didn’t always believe I could live that way, as the real me’; urges students to be their true selves
By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news
In Ashland School District Superintendent Joseph Hattrick’s first keynote address to students during an Ashland High School graduation, he drew on personal experiences to motivate graduates to be their most authentic selves.
Hattrick, who identifies as gay, admitted he himself hasn’t always been able to hold true to this standard.
“I didn’t always believe I could live that way, as the real me,” Hattrick told more than 200 graduates gathered at the Butler Bandshell on June 6. “For 46 years, I believed that to lead meant leaving parts of myself out of the room.”
Hattrick described a childhood in southwest Washington where he was bullied at school with what he described as “homophobic” slurs. He went on to experience threats in his professional life due to his sexual orientation, before moving to Ashland in 2024.
Even upon taking the role as Ashland superintendent but before he had officially started, he said he brought not just educational experience, but fear with him as he came into the role — fear of including his orientation in his professional life.
“When I came to Ashland, something changed,” Hattrick said. “I was encouraged to show up as me — the real me. This was new territory for me.”
An example was evidenced as he displayed a photo of himself and his fiance on stage to colleagues at a welcome event in 2024.
“I was horrified — how would people react?” Hattrick said. “And what happened? The staff didn’t shudder. They didn’t gasp. They cheered. That moment changed everything because for the first moment in my life, I didn’t feel like I had to hide. I didn’t feel alone.”
Hattrick encouraged students to take the same approach in their own lives — to be their true selves, however that looks for students, but to also practice the art of compassion through listening to others’ stories, including those different from their own.
“Telling the truth, my lived experience, didn’t destroy me,” Hattrick said. “It healed me. It connected me to others, it made me a better leader — not in spite of my story, but because I choose to live it fully and out loud, because when I live authentically, we create space for others to do the same.”
He encouraged students to live this out.
“You’re stepping into a world that feels unsettled,” Hattrick said. “In a world like that, it can feel easier to stay quiet, to blend in, to hide who you are. But I want to offer you something different tonight; something I’ve learned and am still learning. Even in times of uncertainty, you are not powerless. You’re not voiceless, you’re not invisible. You, Class of 2025, are the authors of the next chapter.”
Email Ashland.news staff reporter Holly Dillemuth at hollyd@ashland.news.
Related story: ‘Let your light shine’: Ashland High School Class of 2025 celebrated for spirit of resilience, kindness (June 8, 2025)
