Fellowships
Rooted & Rising: A Transformative Leadership Fellowship
Inner work for outer change.
An eight-month identity-conscious leadership fellowship for emerging education and social sector leaders. Grounded in research on transformative learning, belonging, and adult development, the experience moves through three phases: Excavation, Examination, and Construction.
Fellows develop the internal capacities that shape how leaders show up in moments that matter most: identity consciousness, emotional intelligence, self-regulation, relational leadership, and community-centered decision-making. By the end, they leave not only with new tools, but with a clearer sense of who they are as leaders and what they stand for.
Let's do the inner work for outer change together!
Apply TodayWant to learn more? Come to an info session.
Why this fellowship now
Education leaders are carrying more than ever — staffing pressure, political noise, community need, and the weight of their own histories. Most leadership programs hand them another framework.
Rooted & Rising starts somewhere else: with the leader. When leaders know who they are, can stay regulated under pressure, and lead in relationship with their communities, the strategy finally sticks.
Core values
Rooted
Leadership begins with identity — who you are, who shaped you, and who you serve.
Regulated
Embodied practice so leaders stay grounded in the moments that matter most.
Relational
Trust, belonging, and care are the conditions that make good work possible.
Rigorous
Grounded in research on transformative learning, adult development, and belonging.
Relevant
Every practice connects to a real challenge in a real school or organization.
Community
Fellows learn in a cohort that keeps holding them long after the last session.
A journey in three movements
The fellowship is not a series of workshops — it is a deliberate arc. Each phase builds on the last, moving fellows from self-understanding to self-examination, and finally to purposeful action in their schools and communities.
Excavation
Who shaped you, and who are you serving?
Fellows trace the formative experiences, values, and communities that shape their leadership identity and commitment.
Examination
What do you carry into the room?
Fellows examine their patterns under pressure, their racial identity and positionality, and the belonging conditions in their organizations.
Construction
The leader schools need
Fellows turn outward—designing community-centered leadership practices, a culture of learning, and a capstone action project.
What fellows experience
Every session opens with a somatic grounding practice and closes with a forward practice — because leadership development is most powerful when it is embodied, relational, rigorous, and immediately relevant.
- Eight in-person convenings
- A monthly rhythm of gathering, practice, and reflection across the fellowship year.
- Leadership Intensive
- A full day dedicated to identity, positionality, and leading under pressure.
- Coaching & Consultancy Labs
- Monthly peer labs where fellows bring live dilemmas from their own contexts.
- Individual coaching
- Two one-on-one sessions to translate insight into concrete next moves.
- Learning platform
- Resources, reflection prompts, and peer connection between convenings.
What fellows leave with
- A personalized Leadership Identity Portfolio
- A Grounded Leadership Playbook with regulation and decision-making tools
- A Leadership Action Project grounded in a real organizational challenge
- A trusted cohort of peers committed to ongoing growth and accountability
Who this is for
Emerging school leaders
Assistant principals and deans stepping into greater scope and visibility.
Teacher leaders
Educators leading teams, grade levels, or content areas without a formal title.
Aspiring principals
Leaders preparing for the seat and the identity work that comes with it.
Network & nonprofit leaders
Social sector leaders responsible for people, programs, and culture.
"The single most powerful lever for improving educational outcomes is developing excellent leaders who know themselves, know their communities, and lead from that knowing."
— Adapted from Wallace Foundation
Let's do the inner work for outer change together!
Apply TodayInterested in designing a fellowship?
We partner with schools, districts, networks, and education nonprofits to design fellowship experiences tailored to their leaders and communities.
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