2026 ACSA Women in School Leadership Forum

Engage in dialogue with a full-time wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend and administrator about her leadership journey and personal growth through a mindful strategy of sisterhood. Explore ways to strengthen self and others through a core Filipino value of kapwa, a Tagalog word for community, interdependence, and togetherness that is rooted in consciousness. The session will include storytelling and meaning-making with conversations in small and whole group settings. With sisterhood as a leadership strategy, participants will gain tools to identify and amplify their on-going reflection of self and community.

Want to level the playing field and build a strong, internal leadership pipeline? This interactive workshop highlights the inspiration, planning, and implementation of Carlsbad USD’s "Partners in Practice," a multi-tiered mentoring program designed to build a robust, equity-centered leadership pipeline.

This session breaks down how we structured three distinct pathways to support leaders at every career stage: Aspiring Administrators, Assistant Principals, and New Principals. We will dive into the practical realities of our successfully launched Aspiring Administrator series and New Principal mentor program, and share how we are mapping out our Assistant Principal development. We will unpack our complete monthly curriculum, covering operational training, school culture and discipline, and sustainability habits, which align with CPSEL standards. Participants will engage with real-world case studies, practice applying coaching frameworks, and leave with plug-and-play resources to launch their own local mentoring program immediately.

3 Key Audience Takeaways:
1. A comprehensive framework to design and scale a multi-tiered internal leadership pipeline.
2. A complete, month-by-month curriculum blueprint covering school operations, instructional leadership, and wellness.
3. Practical protocols for matching mentors, gathering partner feedback, and establishing non-evaluative coaching structures.

Women in educational leadership experience high levels of stress due to gender bias and demands of the job. In a 2026 Women Leading Ed survey, 92% noted stress as a significant problem and 80% conveyed their work-life balance as poor. The focus will be on positive ways to mitigate the effects of job-related stress–compassion fatigue, secondary trauma, and time as a limited commodity–on one’s health, outlook, and productivity through intentional and systematic self-care.

Women leaders are valuable assets and role models, and it is imperative that we keep them healthy and in the position for the long-term (Pennicooke, 2020). Practicing self-care can be beneficial to ensuring their well-being, and can better position them for success and for maintaining optimum health throughout their careers. Additionally, 93% of teachers requested support for wellness from their administrators, and less than 33% of leaders felt confident to do so (Alpaca, 2026), and could therefore benefit from this presentation.

This session will spotlight self-care as a healing-centered approach that can help women leaders to be proactive and to take positive control of their well-being. Participants will learn about, and be engaged in different types of self-care activities. Our women leaders will leave with their own plans, coping strategies, a commitment to implementing daily self-care, and ways to ensure that their staff and coworkers are also attuned to practicing wellness in the workplace and at home.

While organizational charts and systemic biases are frequently cited as the primary obstacles for women climbing the ranks in K-12 administration, an uncomfortable truth remains largely unaddressed: some of the most painful and persistent obstacles women encounter come from other women. Testimonials from across the educational landscape reveal that instead of experiencing mentorship, many emerging leaders encounter gatekeeping, subtle exclusion, and professional friction from female peers and superiors. Why does the climb to leadership so often turn women against one another rather than uniting them?

By diagnosing why women can be uniquely harsh or unsupportive to one another, we can intentionally design a new blueprint for executive behavior. Empowering the next generation requires us to heal the fractures in the current generation, teaching emerging leaders that true professional sophistication relies on collective elevation, not competitive isolation.

3 Key Takeaways

1. Identify the Root Causes of Peer Friction: Analyze the psychological and structural drivers such as the scarcity mindset and systemic isolation that cause women to view one another as threats rather than allies.
2. Deconstruct the "Alpha Support" Paradox: the gap between public performative support & behaviors that shut down emerging talent.
3. Embody "Walking the Talk" in Leadership: Accountable actions that turn public advocacy for women into real-world, everyday support.

Traditional education and leadership were designed for the "average," but the future of education and leadership belongs to those who design for the outliers. In this session, three female leaders in Alternative Education pull back the curtain on how they’ve traded accidental schooling for Unconventional Intentionality. Learn how to move beyond survival mode and build student-driven systems that treat compassion as a rigorous, scientific framework.

In today’s complex and demanding school environment, women leaders are navigating increasing expectations while working to build strong instructional systems and ensure equitable outcomes for all students. This session reframes “grit” as more than perseverance, it becomes a strategic leadership approach grounded in purpose, intentional action, and system-wide impact.

From Grit to Greatness challenges leaders to move beyond doing it all themselves and instead build the capacity of those around them. Grounded in real-world leadership experience and research on inclusive and transformational leadership, this session focuses on how leaders can expand their influence, strengthen systems, and create sustainable change.

Participants will engage in guided reflection, collaborative discussion, and practical planning aligned to real leadership challenges. Activities are designed to support immediate application at the site and system level.

Key Audience Takeaways:

1. Apply at least two strategies to build staff capacity through aligned systems and shared leadership
2. Implement practical approaches to strengthen teacher confidence and improve instructional outcomes
3. Develop a clear framework for designing inclusive systems that support every student through strong Tier 1 practices

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.

Leadership is not about waiting to be invited—it is about recognizing your value, using your voice, and stepping confidently into spaces where your influence matters. In this engaging and interactive workshop, participants will identify their leadership strengths, practice articulating those strengths in interviews and professional conversations, and explore strategies for gaining access to decision-making spaces. Participants will also reflect on the importance of mentorship and identify the qualities they seek in a trusted female leader who can offer support, perspective, and advocacy. Whether you are aspiring to your next role or seeking to expand your impact in your current one, this session will equip you with practical tools to become unstoppable.