2026 ACSA Women in School Leadership Forum

Women leaders are often encouraged to be resilient, but resilience is not meant to be built in isolation.


Educational leadership can be demanding, complex, and deeply personal work. This session creates space for honest reflection about the relationships that help women sustain their leadership over time and offers practical strategies for building stronger support systems that benefit both the leader and the communities they serve.


Learning Outcomes

1. Assess their current leadership support network
2. Participants will identify the relationships that currently provide challenge, encouragement, accountability, and advocacy—and where meaningful gaps may exist.
3. Recognize barriers that can weaken connection among women leaders
4. Participants will explore common dynamics such as isolation, comparison, perfectionism, competition, and unspoken expectations that can make authentic support more difficult.
5. Develop practical strategies to intentionally strengthen leadership sisterhood
6. Participants will leave with ideas and tools for building more intentional circles of trust and support within their schools, districts, and professional communities.

Leave with:

1. A practical framework for strengthening trusted professional relationships
2. Reflection tools they can use immediately within their own leadership journey
3. Concrete ideas for fostering stronger support networks among women in education

Complaints, investigations, and due process filings are an inevitable part of special education leadership, yet most leaders are not trained in how to respond effectively when situations escalate.

This session provides a clear, practical roadmap for navigating high-stakes situations, including state complaints, OCR investigations, and due process. Presented through the combined perspective of a Special Education Director and a Special Education Attorney, this session demystifies the process and focuses on what leaders need to do in the moment.

Participants will learn how to respond in the critical first 24–48 hours, communicate effectively with stakeholders, and avoid common missteps that increase risk. Grounded in real-world scenarios, this session equips leaders with tools to lead with clarity, confidence, and purpose during challenging situations.

Key Audience Takeaways:
• Clear steps for responding in the first 24–48 hours of a crisis
• Strategies for managing communication with families, staff, and leadership
• Awareness of common errors that escalate conflict and liability

School systems cannot rely on chance to develop their next generation of leaders. Yet many districts promote strong educators into leadership roles without intentional preparation, coaching, or system alignment. This session provides a practical, scalable framework for building the capacity of aspiring leaders through distributed leadership, structured mentorship, and aligned professional learning.

Participants will explore how to design a leadership development pipeline that integrates instructional leadership, operational literacy, culture-building, and systems leadership. Drawing from real district implementation examples, the session will demonstrate how leadership capacity can be embedded into PLC structures, committee work, pathway initiatives, and emerging technology efforts rather than treated as an isolated program.

Attendees will leave with a replicable leadership pipeline model, sample structures for mentorship and coaching, and practical tools for identifying, developing, and sustaining aspiring leaders across roles.

Educational leadership spaces often privilege dominant narratives, leaving leaders from historically marginalized communities, particularly women, women of color, and Black women, navigating systems that were not designed with them in mind. This session centers the experience of leading from the margins and offers leaders both validation and practical tools to sustain themselves while continuing equity-centered work.

Grounded in doctoral research, district leadership practice, and lived experience, this workshop explores the power of critical reflection, storytelling as resistance, and intentional coping strategies for leaders operating at the intersections of race, gender, and power. Participants will engage in structured reflection, shared narrative practices, and planning tools designed to support clarity, agency, and resilience when systems fail to change

The session intentionally creates a brave, supportive space where leaders can reflect honestly, hear lived experiences, and leave with renewed purpose and concrete strategies for navigating inequitable systems.

Key Audience Takeaways

1. Explore how race, gender, and systemic inequities shape leadership identity and decision-making.
2. Apply critical reflection and storytelling as tools for clarity, advocacy, and resilience.
3. Identify strategic practices, including support networks, boundary-setting, and preemptive planning, to navigate inequitable systems with clarity and conviction.

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.

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.

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.