recent presentations & events
Organizations Built for Change
Keynote @ ALP
Taipei, Taiwan
Organizations around the world are struggling to keep up with accelerating shifts in markets, technology and culture. Those that are succeeding not only have strong products, people, and technology – they also operate in a fundamentally different way. We call this new paradigm responsive because it creates organizations that are able to process change at speed – harnessing it to reveal new ways of organizing and working that are more fit to today’s environment.
Bridging the Strategic Gap: How to Drive Visions for the Future
Virtual
Your strategic planning journey doesn't stop when you've published your strategic plan. It's how you live it and what you decide to do first. This session is for leaders who want to connect their vision to action. Participants will leave with: 1) A shared understanding of the strategic plan’s intent and structure 2) A prioritized set of concrete initiatives along with milestones/deliverables 3) The start of a 1-3 year roadmap for implementing the strategic plan 4)An opportunity to practice strategic planning as a team.
Leadership Habits To Create Trust, Connection, and Learning
NWAIS Heads Institute
Tacoma, WA
As school leaders you often carry the needs and culture of your faculty, students, and community, especially during the past few years. What does it mean to be a leader today? How do we focus on what’s next while honoring this past year? This session will share habits you can have as a leader to create greater trust, connection, and learning with your team. These habits are practical actions you can apply immediately and that can have a ripple effect, leading to greater purpose and outcomes. This session is designed for school leaders.
Facilitating Courageous Conversations Visually
NAIS People of Color Conference
San Antonio, TX | pocc.nais.org
As educators and activists leading the work around diversity, equity and inclusion in our schools, we are often called on to facilitate courageous conversations across identity, power, and difference. Though there are many dialogue models and tools, visuals can help set the stage, support thinking, and catalyze breakthroughs. Engage with veteran facilitators to learn common facilitation models, avoid pitfalls, and manage polarity. Learn visual facilitation from experts to help people see issues and perspectives more clearly. Through this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to unpack practical strategies on facilitating courageous conversations, practice facilitating, and leave with a visual toolset to deepen their practice. Co-facilitated with Tamisha Williams and Rosetta Lee.
Leading from the Middle: Managing Up, Down, and Across
Virtual 5-part series with CATDC
Full-day with PAIS
As a middle leader, you’re in a unique and often challenging position. You’re not just leading; you’re translating vision into action, balancing expectations from senior leadership while supporting and advocating for your team. You’re managing relationships in all directions, often without clear authority, yet with immense responsibility. This program focuses on five essential and relevant leadership skills that equip middle leaders to navigate their role with confidence, clarity, and impact. Co-facilitated with Eric Hudson.
Human First, AI Ready
NAIS Annual Conference
Seattle, WA | nais.org
What do you do when the future is still being written? How do you lead a community where excitement, skepticism, and fear coexist? How can you use AI to support your own leadership - ethically, inclusively, and effectively? This hands-on workshop is designed for school leaders ready to navigate uncertainty, embrace the possibilities of AI, and support their communities with clarity, care, and courage. AI isn’t just a faculty or student issue. It’s a leadership issue. As the landscape evolves, school leaders need the mindset, tools, and language to lead change while staying grounded in human values. This workshop will be highly interactive, with opportunities to reflect, discuss, and apply learning in real time. Co-facilitated with Eric Hudson.
other presentation topics
Making Decisions in the Face of Ambiguity & Uncertainty
ISACS New Leaders Academy
Virtual
Co-presented with Eric Hudson, Chief Program Officer at Global Online Academy, this session introduces participants to polarity management, an approach to organizational challenges developed by Barry Johnson. Participants will learn the difference between “problems to be solved” and “polarities to be managed” and will practice identifying and mapping polarities at their own schools to better understand how to achieve balance in some of the most complex issues we face as leaders.
Challenge Success Conference
Stanford University
Prioritizing Equity Work
Equity work is the work of educators yet it's often framed as a separate initiative competing for attention, resources, and practice. How do you integrate equity work so it connects to other priorities? Participants will leave with: 1) An understanding of what equity work in schools is and is not 2) A framework to explore their own work in their school/ districts/ communities 3) An opportunity to practice and learn what other schools are doing.
Board Habits to Foster Generative Thinking and Collective Purpose
ACIS Leadership Conference
Beaver Creek, CO
As we emerge from a remarkable time in our lives and in our schools, now more than ever, boards must be generative and future-focused. How do we become more generative and why is this important for a board? How do we bring clarity to our collective purpose? What are small changes we can make on our board to create a more meaningful impact for the school? This session is designed for board chairs, committee chairs, and heads of schools who are interested in forming new board habits to help your board use a future-focus and generative thinking to respond to the needs of your community. Co-presented with Keara Mascareñaz.
Innovation Keynote
A Night of Inquiry, Innovation, and Impact.
MVPS - Atlanta, GA
In a talk inspired by strong memories of her mother, Kawai shares how we must all get comfortable with discomfort. More specifically, she digs into three particular forms of discomfort -- ambiguity, failure and change. In an age where the largest taxi company in the world owns no cars and the biggest "hotel" business owns no real estate, how do we understand the endless opportunities possible in the uncertain world? How do we embrace failure as the most productive way to grow our brains? How do we challenge the status quo to be change makers?