2026 ACSA Women in School Leadership Forum

Education leadership requires more than individual excellence; it demands collective strength and inclusive collaboration. This interactive session invites participants to rethink how leadership teams are built and sustained, emphasizing trust, shared vision, mentorship, and allyship.

The session begins with an exploration of common challenges women face in leadership roles, including underrepresentation, limited access to mentorship, and implicit bias. Participants will then reflect on their own leadership journeys and the networks that have shaped their growth.

A central focus will be the dual importance of women mentoring women and engaging male allies. While mentorship among women creates spaces of shared experience, validation, and empowerment, male allies often hold positions of influence that can open doors, amplify voices, and advocate for equitable opportunities. Participants will explore how to effectively partner with male colleagues as sponsors and champions, and how to foster allyship that is authentic and impactful.

The session will also distinguish between mentorship and sponsorship, emphasizing how both women and men can play critical roles in advancing leadership pathways. Through guided discussion and scenario-based learning, participants will learn about the presenter's personal journey to the Superintendency and how every relationship plays a critical role in personal and professional development and advancement.

Women in school leadership face a unique double burden of navigating systemic gender gaps while managing the high-stakes emotional labor of their communities. Resonant Resilience reframes wellness from a luxury to a strategic leadership imperative. This workshop moves beyond theoretical balance to provide practical, somatic tools for sustainable energy and mental clarity.

Participants will engage in a Resilience Audit to identify burnout triggers and explore work-life integration strategies tailored for high-responsibility roles. This session incorporates experiential nervous system regulation. Leaders will participate in a guided seated breathwork sequence designed to lower cortisol and a brief sound therapy immersion using a quartz crystal bowl. This sound experience facilitates deep cellular relaxation and mental reset, demonstrating how leaders can use sensory tools to maintain composure in high-pressure environments. By the end of the session, attendees will shift from the cycle of exhaustion to a state of empowered, wellness-centered leadership.

Key Takeaways:

1. The Somatic Reset: Breathwork and sound-centering technique to regulate the nervous system during high-stress days.
2. Integration Over Balance: Develop a tools that set sustainable boundaries while meeting varying demands.
3. Modeling Wellness: Acquire actionable habits to lead a wellness-centered culture that improves staff retention and collective resilience.

What happens when women stop staying in their assigned lanes and start leading everywhere?

This interactive and inspiring session challenges women leaders to move beyond traditional career paths, seek experiences across the entire organization, and step confidently into spaces where women have historically been underrepresented, including business services, human resources, CTE, operations, and secondary leadership. Through candid stories, practical strategies, humor, and research, four accomplished education leaders will explore how to overcome professional pigeonholing, bias, workplace politics, impostor syndrome, and the pressure to continually prove your worth.

Participants will leave ready to broaden their leadership portfolios, strengthen their networks, advocate for one another, and protect the wellness that makes sustained leadership possible. Bring your ambition, your wisdom, and your willingness to take the next bold step because you were not meant to lead in only one lane.