NAIS Diversity Leadership Institute

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Who it's for

Topics

Program Overview

• Navigating the legal and governance realities
• Securing and reallocating resources without direct budget authority
• Proactively engaging as schools navigate shifting expectations and pressures
• Designing school environments that foster connection, safety, and purpose
• Aligning belonging work with mission, enrollment, and long-term sustainability
• A clear understanding of the current legal landscape and its implications for school policy and practice
• A multi-source funding strategy and draft proposal aligned to institutional priorities
• Practical tools for navigating conflict and competing stakeholder demands
• Leadership frameworks for advancing belonging and community well-being
• Concrete plans to implement immediately within their schools

Embracing Diversity in a Climate of Uncertainty

• Examine the historical and social dynamics shaping today’s challenges and apply evidence-based, healing-centered practices to strengthen institutional culture and resilience.

Strategic Funding for Inclusion and Belonging Work

• Learn how heads of school and CFOs make funding decisions, identify hidden budget opportunities, and build a multi-source funding strategy that aligns belonging work with institutional priorities.

Leading in a Complex Legal Landscape

• Work directly with the NAIS general counsel through case-based scenarios to understand legal considerations and strengthen your decision-making as a school leader.

Leading for Belonging in an Age of Loneliness

• Apply research from neuroscience and public health to design environments that foster connection, safety, and purpose across school communities.

Learning Strands

• Leading Through Conflict Recognize how preferred, culturally learned approaches to conflict influence communication and resolving conflict.
• Leading Across Difference Prepare school leaders to cultivate belonging and inclusion across lines of difference.
• Leading and Managing Discover and build adaptive leadership skills for complex change.
• Leading Through Dialogue Understand how engaging in a cooperative conversation allows exchanging information that cultivates relationships with one another.

2026 Faculty

• Mahtab Mahmoodzadeh Assistant Head of School Giddens School (WA)
• Susan Perry Associate Head of School for Wellness and Belonging Forsyth Country Day School (NC)
• Jay Rapp Director of Enrollment Green Acres School (MD)
• Yerko Sepúlveda Head of Community Engagement and Wellness Porter-Gaud School (SC)
• Jessie Skipwith School Counselor Aspen Academy (CO)
• Marlo Thomas Assistant Head for Equity and Inclusion Georgetown Day School (DC)
• Roderick White Director, Office of Diversity and Community Life University School of Nashville (TN)