Conference Schedule

Monday, June 26

1:00     - Check-in Open; refreshments & tours available

2:00     - Conference Opening, Welcome & Introduction of keynote speaker

2:15      - Opening Keynote, Dr. Ken Ginsburg

3:45     - Housekeeping and schedule for the remainder of the conference

4:00     - Affinity Group meetings & icebreakers (30 min)

4:30     - Session 1

Don’t Send a Vegan to Slice the Sausage: A Guide to Intentional Professional Culture, Erick Johnson, The Howard Gardner School

Pivot-Leadership: The Modern Face of School Leadership, Brian Bloomfield, The Academy at Charlemont

Using Music in an Interdisciplinary Setting, Bill Carbone & Christine Nick, Rock and Roll Forever Foundation  

5:30     - Glassblowing Studio open - sign up for a slot to make a glass paperweight in The Crefeld Glass Studio, or just watch the fun. Signup sheet will be available during check-in.

7:00      - Group Dinner (included in registration): El Poquito, 8201 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19118

9-ish    - Late night informal gathering at the Iron Hill Brewery, 8400 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19118

Tuesday June 27

8:00     - Breakfast Buffet (light fare + coffee & tea)

8:45     - Session 2

Advising an Online Student Newspaper: The Rewards and Challenges, David Cutler, Brimmer and May School

Adding OOMPH to Development in Small Schools, Starr Snead, Advancement Connections

The Coaching Teacher, Quinn Simpson & Rachel Baldi, Graydin

10:30    - Featured Speaker, Debra Wilson

12:00    - Lunch (included)

   - Glassblowing Studio open

1:30       - Session 3

Using Music in an Interdisciplinary Setting, Bill Carbone & Christine Nick, Rock and Roll Forever Foundation

Power/Play: Educating Young People to be Participants in Healthy Relationships, Sara Narva, The Crefeld School

The Strategic Planning Process Re-Imagined: Embedding Strategic Thinking and Action into Everyday Operations, Brooke Carroll, Brooke Carroll Consulting

3:00     - Session 4

Creating a Major Gifts Program at a Small School, Deborah Crocker, The Miquon School

Cultivating Teacher Leadership in Small Schools, Rebekah Jordan, Indian Mountain School & EJ Albin, The Advent School

In2Out: Holding Space For Students & Ourselves to Explore Social Responsibility, Intelligence, Justice & Culture, Nica Fleming, The Crefeld School

4:30     - Session 5

Meaningful Equity, Justice, and Diversity Work When Your Budget Does Not Support a Diversity Coordinator Position, Jen Cort, Jen Cort Educational Consulting

Everyone an Advisor: Building Intentional Communities of Care, Tim Boyle, Hillary Hamilton & Sharlean Pillay, Science Leadership Academy Middle School

Stress Reduction for School Adults, Dave Mullen, The Nora School

6:00     - Dinner Reception - Tastes of Philly (Crefeld’s Campus)

9:30     - Late night informal gathering at Iron Hill Brewery (in Chestnut Hill)

Wednesday, June 28

8:00     - Breakfast with Affinity Groups (light fare + coffee & tea)

9:00     - Session 6

The Power of School Culture, Chris Bright, Champs Charter High School of the Arts & Betsy McKenna, Exponential Returns, LLC

The Power and Perils of Parent Volunteers, Liz Baker & Laura Marsico , The GreenMount School

10:30    - Closing Keynote - Ali Michael

12:00    - Closing Address - George Zeleznik, The Crefeld School

2017 Conference Sessions

Session 1

Don't Send a Vegan to Slice the Sausage: A Guide to Intentional Professional Culture

Erick Johnson, The Howard Gardner School, Alexandria, VA

The faculty and staff of a small school are unusual creatures. We steered our careers to these minute institutions for a reason. Oftentimes, in our zeal for involvement, we allow ourselves and others to take on "just one more thing," until, creaking under the weight of our dissimilar and diverse responsibilities, we stagger to the realm of resentment and ineffectualism. A faculty and staff culture that emphasizes the "get it handled, it's everyone's job" mode, has tremendous advantages. It also creates any number of potential pitfalls. During this three-section workshop, participants will learn some of the theory behind intentional (and unintentional) professional culture, actively reflect on their own school's faculty and staff culture, and take away the background and practical skills to help their school develop an intentional, effective, efficient, and sustainable professional culture.

Pivot-Leadership: The Modern Face of School Leadership    

Brian Bloomfield, The Academy at Charlemont, Charlemont, MA

Next to teachers in classrooms, school leaders have the biggest impact on the success of our students. But leadership models have changed over the past 40 years. Where once austere-looking people cultivated gravitas, we now see a variety of leadership styles.

In this session we will lay out some of the major movements in leadership and then introduce the notion of pivot-leadership. Rather than a new model, pivot-leadership explores the notion that leadership styles, personalities, and models are all valid, but applied differently in context. The job of an effective leader, then, is to master and personalize them all, and deploy them according to context and need.

Using Music in an Interdisciplinary Setting

Bill Carbone & Christine Nick, The Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, New York, NY

The TeachRock presentation will center around the interdisciplinary, multi-cultural, and analytical nature of the curriculum and, more specifically, how to use popular music as a gateway to engaging discussions about American history and culture. The session will feature hands-on activities from several lessons, and draw material from the TeachRock core curriculum, as well as special projects such as the PBS Soundbreaking and American Epic series, The Ron Howard Beatles documentary Eight Days A Week, and the Dave Grohl-produced HBO series Sonic Highways.

Session 2

The Rewards and Challenges of Advising an Independent School Online Student Newspaper

David Cutler, Brimmer and May School, Chestnut Hill, MA

Is your school thinking about launching an online student newspaper, but isn't sure exactly how or what's involved? Is your school passionate about promoting student voice, but worries about how sensitive content or poorly written stories may impact the community, including recruitment, retention and matriculation? In this 1-hour presentation, Brimmer and May School Journalism teacher David Cutler will share how he helped students launch The Gator, an award-winning student news site, and what it took to get the ball rolling at a small independent school. Cutler, who has also written about the value of student voice for Edutopia, The Atlantic, and the National Association of Independent Schools, will cover the ins-and-outs of what small schools must consider before launching an online journalism program, as well as who should lead the effort.

Adding OOMPH to Development in Small Schools

Starr Snead, Advancement Connections

Get a grip! The tangled, elusive priorities of fundraising in small schools could discombobulate Indiana Jones – and it’s even tougher for more conventionally gifted humans. So busy changing hats that you nearly lose your head? Realize wistfully in October you forgot the course you set in September? Did midwinter and spring find you just putting one foot in front of the other, eyes to the linoleum? If you long for your program’s True North, some reliable means of quieting the noise of competing projects, voices, objectives and deadlines, this is the session for you. That’s the bag of tricks this workshop offers: approaches to constructing a valid, realistic, sustainable “big picture context” for what you do and where you’re headed; ways to work on balancing ambitious goals with realistic, manageable practices.

The Coaching Teacher

Rachel Baldi & Quinn Simpson, Graydin, London, UK & New York, NY

The role of the teacher is rapidly changing and we are moving into a new stage where the most effective teachers are required to be motivating champions. We need ‘Coaching Teachers’. This workshop will explore what it means to use coaching skills as a teacher and more specifically, how to use these skills within a small school setting to strengthen the community and build deeper relationships. The Coaching Teacher is a learning architect who visualizes a learning experience and allows the learners to build it giving them a sense of ownership, responsibility and accountability.

• The goal of this workshop is for participants to learn the basic coaching skills such as:
• Asking questions, rather than telling and giving advice
• Recognizing the importance of raising the learner’s awareness before helping them to shift mindsets and commit to new actions and behaviors
• Focusing on people first, not their problems
• Using mainly ‘what’ questions and dividing their listening into the 3 Ms – Micro, Macro and Me
• Understanding the forms of help spectrum and differentiating coaching from all other forms

This workshop will be highly experiential using physical resources, a worksheet pack and standing exercises to learn in a fun and engaging way. At the end of the workshop, participants will have a clear understanding of how to use foundational coaching skills in one-to-one coaching settings with colleagues, as well as in small group meetings, classrooms and other areas of their lives.

Session 3

Using Music in an Interdisciplinary Setting

Bill Carbone & Christine Nick, The Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, New York, NY

The TeachRock presentation will center around the interdisciplinary, multi-cultural, and analytical nature of the curriculum and, more specifically, how to use popular music as a gateway to engaging discussions about American history and culture. The session will feature hands-on activities from several lessons, and draw material from the TeachRock core curriculum, as well as special projects such as the PBS Soundbreaking and American Epic series, The Ron Howard Beatles documentary Eight Days A Week, and the Dave Grohl-produced HBO series Sonic Highways.

Power/Play: Educating Young People to be Participants in Healthy Relationships

Sara Narva, The Crefeld School, Philadelphia, PA

We live in a world where messages about sex are ubiquitous, exploitative, and confusing, and education about it is obtuse or non-existent. As progressive educators, we must provide our students access to useful information about how to navigate issues of sexuality, power, communication, abuse, affection and connection. If we believe that young people should be central to their own learning, then we can not omit this piece of content that is so central to their lives. If we want them to be able to have healthy and loving relationships, safe, empowered sexual encounters, be good communicators, partners and friends, we need to help them learn and think about how. As educators in small schools, we have the chance to really know our students and create more trusting environments to talk about challenging issues. Let us use that powerful element of our school missions to support our young people in this critical content area.

In this workshop, we will share our Power/Play curriculum, used at The Crefeld School. Our main goal is to support educators to think about how to bring meaningful, progressive sexuality education to their students. We will discuss some of the challenges, and skills needed; participants will experience some of the activities and brainstorm how to apply and adapt our curriculum at your small schools.

The Strategic Planning Process Re-Imagined: Embedding Strategic Thinking and Action into Everyday Operations

Brooke Carroll, Brooke Carroll Consulting

Small schools no longer have the time, resources, personnel, or desire to engage in traditional Strategic Planning processes that are time-consuming, disconnected, and end up with a long list of action items that sit in a binder on a shelf. However, engaging in meaningful, truly strategic, ongoing planning is critical for small schools as they navigate the current enrollment, employment, educational, and economic climate. Drawing on 9 years of experience as the Head of a small school, Brooke Carroll presents a model for strategizing and planning that is connected to current issues and needs, less time consuming and arduous for leaders, meaningful and relevant for community members, cost-effective, and becomes an embedded part of ongoing operations.

Many strategic plans result in a list of action steps to reach goals but leave out actual strategies that describe how goals will be met. We will discuss the value of developing well-considered strategies that connect with the underlying reason for the school’s stated goals and how these strategies can help connect all members of the community to the success of achieving outcomes.

The primary goal of this 60-minute workshop is to demonstrate to school leaders how, through relatively small changes in perspective, process, and action, organizations can transform any planning process into one that is truly strategic, relevant, and meaningful to all of their constituents. An overview of the process will be provided and specific actions that school leaders can immediately implement will be offered.

Session 4

Creating a Major Gifts Program at a Small School

Deborah Crocker, The Miquon School, Conshohocken, PA

Are you tired of hearing consultants at conferences talk about their major gifts officers? Does the idea of cultivating large gifts seem like an impossible dream?! In large schools, there are employees in place whose sole purpose is to conduct major gift work and cultivate donors. Most small schools only have staff in place to run annual giving programs and events. All development professionals agree that a major gifts program can create large benefits to serve an institution for the long term. Until systems and protocols are in place, however, it’s impossible to cultivate major donors correctly.

This workshop will help to distill the concerns and questions that small schools with small staffs have about major gift work. It’s all possible, but what works for a small school will be very different than what works for a large school and this workshop will address just that. This session will help small schools develop systems, identify resources and create a major gift program that fits in their school’s unique culture. The goals include:

• Offering strategies for small schools that have limited resources to develop a feasible major gifts program.
• Teaching development personnel how to track potential donors and how to strategize individual prospects in the pipeline.
• Unlocking the mysteries of donor research, wealth ratings and capacity and inclination tracking.

Cultivating Teacher Leadership in Small Schools

Rebekah Jordan, Indian Mountain School, Lakeville, CT & EJ Albin, The Advent School, Boston, MA

It can be incredibly challenging to find authentic opportunities to develop leaders in small schools, particularly when mid-level administrative positions are few and far between. Teachers who may be considering career growth don’t always have clear spaces in which to try out leadership roles. Likewise, administrators can have a hard time helping teachers grow their leadership capacity, which can lead to increased turnover.

One way to address this opportunity gap is through a Faculty Committee model. Faculty Committees can be transformative for teachers, result in increased faculty investment in the school community, and provide budget-friendly professional development. Teacher-leaders gain a deeper understanding of the administrative process, and administrators gain crucial support with high-impact projects.

In this workshop, we will explore the implementation of Faculty Committees in diverse school settings, giving participants concrete tools to take back and use in their own communities. Some of the issues addressed will include:

• Preparation and project identification
• Implementation (finding the time!)
• Facilitation techniques
• Coaching for teacher-leaders
• Follow-through

As presenters, our own work has been transformed through the process of faculty committees, and we are excited to come to the table offering both a teaching and administrative perspective. We will examine specific examples from two diverse schools, focusing on project management, communication, and troubleshooting challenges. Both teachers and administrators will identify specific work they can undertake in the upcoming school year and will leave with a set of resources to assist them as they embark on their journey.

In2Out: Holding Space For Students & Ourselves to Explore Social Responsibility, Intelligence, Justice & Culture

Nica Fleming, The Crefeld School, Philadelphia, PA

Using In2Out Personalization Cards in a supportive space, this interactive workshop will include written reflection (In), in pairs (2) and whole group sharing (Out). Originally developed for teachers to share with students, questions will be selected with educators in mind. Topics will explore social responsibility, intelligence, justice, and culture.

Session 5

Meaningful Equity, Justice and Diversity Work When Your Budget Does Not Support A Diversity Coordinator Position

Jen Cort, Jen Cort Educational Consulting

Small schools are often unable to hire a person appointed to focus on equity, justice and diversity and therefore are uncertain how to incorporate the work into their school day. Large schools often are able to hire a diversity coordinator and yet are uncertain how to engage all members of the faculty and staff to be active participants in this important work. This workshop will help schools identify their strengths, examine their gaps and create a plan for engaging all constituent groups in living out their mission statement as it relates to equity, justice and diversity.

Everyone an Advisor: Building Intentional Communities of Care

Timothy Boyle, Hilary Hamilton & Sharlean Pillay, Science Leadership Academy Middle School, Philadelphia, PA

Central to the SLA-model is the ethic of care. We teach students before content and center our curriculum and pedagogy with students at the center. One of the the benefits of a small school is the ability for teachers to really get to know students and build meaningful relationships. Wrapping up our founding year of SLA-MS and planning to double our student body in the fall, we’re asking: how can we leverage our small size in order to build meaningful relationships with students that grow with them over the course of their middle school career?

Thinking outside the traditional classroom, in this session we’ll be discussing advisory models. Why is advisory important? What is the role of the advisor, and other advisory group members, in a student’s experience at school? What are the challenges to advisory - both on an individual and school wide scale?

This session will be an interactive conversation where we will work together to learn about different advisory models: SLA-MS and the other schools represented in the room. What does advisory time look like? How is the work of advisory interwoven throughout the day? How can we leverage relationships built with students along with the other ‘work’ of advisory to help students grow on a multi-year scale?

Stress Reduction for School Adults

Dave Mullen, The Nora School, Silver Spring, MD

Being a teacher or administrator is a stressful profession, even more so in a small school where you may (probably) wear many hats. This one-hour experiential workshop will provide an overview of mindfulness stress reduction practices, along with a brief description of how The Nora School incorporates mindfulness into daily school life as well as into professional development.

Session 6

The Power of School Culture     

Christ Bright, CHAMPS Charter High School of the Arts, Van Nuys, CA & Betsy McKenna, Exponential Returns, LLC

School is a social construct, defined by the identity of the community in which it operates. With increased importance placed on the value of human connection, we must be vigilant about cultivating a collaborative and participatory educational environment that considers and values inclusivity and multiple perspectives. We believe that a deep sense of belonging - being valued and known - is at the heart of this endeavor.
This workshop is designed for administrator and teacher leaders in their quest to cultivate a thriving, joyful and vibrant school community. During our time together, we will examine how mission defines school community and how culture informs how we teach and learn.

The Power and Perils of Parent Volunteers

Liz Dover Baker & Laura Marsico, The GreenMount School, Baltimore, MD

The GreenMount School was founded on the principal of a parent partnership. The Parent Cooperative actually ran the school in its early years and while the role has changed, it remains an important part of our sustainability. Each parent at The GreenMount School contractually agrees to 40 hours of service to the school through the CO-OP. This is great...BUT, how do we ensure that we are utilizing this resource to its fullest? And, how do we make sure stuff gets done? Laura Marsico, CO-OP Manager, and Liz Baker, Head of School, will share strategies and solutions for harnessing the power of parents in your community.

2017 Conference Speakers

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg, MD, MSed

Kenneth Ginsburg, M.D., M.S.Ed, is a pediatrician specializing in Adolescent Medicine at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He also serves Philadelphia's homeless youth as Director of Health Services at Covenant House Pennsylvania.

The theme that ties together his clinical practice, teaching, research and advocacy efforts is that of building on the strength of teenagers by fostering their internal resilience. His goal is to translate the best of what is known from research and practice into practical approaches parents, educators, professionals and communities can use to prepare children and teens to thrive. He has more than 125 publications, including original research articles, clinical practice articles, five parenting books, videos for parents and teens, and a toolkit for youth-serving professionals. His most recent parenting books are Building Resilience in Children and Teens: Giving Kids Roots and Wings and Raising Kids to Thrive: Balancing Love with Expectations and Protection with Trust, published by The American Academy of Pediatrics. His comprehensive professional toolkit "Reaching Teens: Strength-based Communication Strategies to Build Resilience and Support Healthy Development" includes 450 films and offers up to 65 CEUs for health professionals, social workers, and counselors. To advocate for parents' critical role in raising resilient children and teens, he has appeared on CNN, NPR, The Today Show, The CBS morning show, Good Morning America, Fox and Friends, and ABC, NBC, and CBS Nightly News programs. 

Keynote Speaker: Ali Michael, PhD

Ali Michael is the Director of K-12 Consulting and Professional Development at the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education at the University of Pennsylvania and the Co-Founder and Director of the Race Institute for K-12 Educators. She is the author of Raising Race Questions: Whiteness, Inquiry and Education (Teachers College Press, 2015): a book designed to support teachers in the long term and personal process of understanding the role that race plays in their lives and in their classrooms.  She is also co-editor of Everyday White People Confront Racial and Social Injustice: 15 Stories (2015, Stylus Press) and The White Women’s Guide to Teaching Black Boys (Forthcoming, Corwin). 

Ali sits on the editorial board of the journal Whiteness and Education. She and her partner, Michael, live in Philadelphia and consider questions of race and education on a daily basis in the raising of their two children.

Featured SPEAKER: Debra P. Wilson, general counsel for NAIS

Current and Coming Legal Issues for Small Schools

The number of legal concerns and exposures seems to grow exponentially every year. Privacy and technology, protecting students from educator abuse, issues in counseling with students, student on student sexual assault, wage and hour excitement, are all on the docket this year. What are the issues and how can small schools manage them? How do you implement a risk management program without having a cast of thousands on staff? We’ll discuss these and more!

Debra P. Wilson is general counsel at NAIS, overseeing the association’s legal work. Wilson monitors and analyzes legal issues relevant to independent schools, and speaks regularly about the topics throughout the country. An expert on independent school governance, Wilson is coauthor of the Trustee Handbook, 10th edition. She also authors amicus briefs for key court cases. 

Prior to joining NAIS in August 2000, Wilson participated in the Attorney General’s Honors Program as a trial attorney for the Tax Division at the Department of Justice. She holds a J.D. from the University of South Carolina School of Law. She is also an alumna of The Williams School (Connecticut).

Session Facilitators

Rachel Baldi

Coach and Trainer at Graydin, London, UK & New York, NY

Session: The Coaching Teacher

Rachel is a trainer, supervisor and certified coach, with over six years’ experience of coaching individuals and delivering courses. Her expertise is in leadership development, sales, and project management, and has been trained in the Neuroscience of Coaching and Mindfulness. She is a Certified Co-Active Coach (CPCC) trained by The Coaches Training Institute (CTI) and a graduate of their Leadership Programme. She has a background in youth coaching, focusing on career development and rehabilitation in the criminal justice system, and works internationally as a CTI coach in the UK, USA and Singapore. She now works for the Corporate Department bringing coaching and leadership development into companies and organisations. 

Liz Dover Baker

Head of School at The GreenMount School, Baltimore, MD

Session: The Power and Perils of Parent Volunteers

Liz has been walking the walk and talking the talk for progressive education for nearly 20 years. This is Liz’s third year as Head of School for The GreenMount School in Baltimore, Maryland, a school that has welcomed her vision, leadership, and commitment to empowering students to make good decisions about themselves and their learning. She holds degrees from University of Delaware and Johns Hopkins University.

Liz is a native Baltimorean and a proud city dweller. She can parallel park anywhere. She and her husband have a 10-year-old son, and they spend free time rock climbing, biking, and being amazed by nature.

Brian Bloomfield

Head of School at The Academy at Charlemont, Charlemont, MA

Session: Pivot-Leadership: The Modern Face of School Leadership

Timothy Boyle

Founding Principal at Science Leadership Academy Middle School, Philadelphia, PA

Session: Everyone an Advisor: Building Intentional Communities of Care

Timothy is the Founding Principal at Science Leadership Academy Middle School. He's worked in Philadelphia schools for 11 years as a teacher, school design leader, and now principal.

Chris Bright

Executive Director at CHAMPS Charter High School of the Arts, Van Nuys, CA

Session: The Power of School Culture

Chris has served as a teacher, principal, Head of School, and Executive Director in schools in the United States and internationally, since 1989. He began teaching art and music in a small independent school (Westminster Day School) in his hometown of Oklahoma City. He taught middle school English and British History at The American School in London (1993-2001), served as Upper Division Head at New Canaan Country School (2001-2008), and was Head of School at Casady School in Oklahoma City, OK (2008-2014). He currently serves as Executive Director of CHAMPS Charter High School of the Arts since June, 2014.

Mr. Bright earned his BA in Art History from Trinity University in San Antonio, his MA in Philosophy of Education from the University of London, Institute of Education. He's an avid painter, musician, and is completely devoted to the pursuit of the transformative power of creativity and what schools should do to make a difference in students' lives.

Bill Carbone

Senior Project Manager at The Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, New York, NY

Session: Using Music in an Interdisciplinary Setting

Bill is an ethnomusicologist, musician and senior project manager at The Rock and Roll Forever Foundation.

About the Foundation: Stevie Van Zandt’s (yes, that Stevie Van Zandt) Rock and Roll Forever Foundation brings rich, interdisciplinary educational materials to teachers through its TeachRock project—at no cost. Whether using the core lessons or materials drawn from TeachRock's collaborations with Ron Howard's Beatles documentary, the PBS Soundbreaking series, or others, educators across disciplines can bring a new kind of energy into learning, connecting with students and teachers in an area where they’ve already made an investment: popular music.

Brooke Carroll

Brooke Carroll Consulting

Session: The Strategic Planning Process Re-Imagined: Embedding Strategic Thinking and Action into Everyday Operations

Brooke recently retired as a Head of a small school and is currently consulting with schools and nonprofits to meet strategy, governance, planning, accreditation, curricular, and management needs. With over 20 years of school leadership experience at all grade levels, she collaborates with groups and individuals to meet goals and exceed expectations.

Jen Cort

Jen Cort Educational Consulting

Session: Meaningful Equity, Justice and Diversity Work When Your Budget Does Not Support A Diversity Coordinator Position

Deborah Crocker

Director of Admissions at The Miquon School, Conshohocken, PA

Session: Creating a Major Gifts Program at a Small School

Deborah is the current Director of Development at The Miquon School and earned her Master's in Arts Administration from Columbia University. For the past ten years she has been raising money for Philadelphia nonprofits, with a focus on creating development programs that fit each institution's unique needs and that lead to increased funding over the long term.

David Cutler

History, Government & Journalism Teacher at Brimmer and May School, Chestnut Hill, MA

Session: The Rewards and Challenges of Advising an Independent School Online Student Newspaper

David teaches History, Government and Journalism at Brimmer and May School (Chestnut Hill, MA). An official blogger for Edutopia, his work has also appeared in The Atlantic, PBS News Hour and Independent School Magazine. @SpinEdu on Twitter

Nica Fleming

Director of Technology & Co-Director of Diversity at The Crefeld School, Philadelphia, PA

Session: In2Out: Holding Space For Students & Ourselves to Explore Social Responsibility, Intelligence, Justice & Culture

Hilary Hamilton

Teacher at Science Leadership Academy Middle School, Philadelphia, PA

Session: Everyone an Advisor: Building Intentional Communities of Care

Hilary is a founding teacher at Science Leadership Academy Middle School. She worked at The Philadelphia School before joining the SLA-MS team.

Erick Johnson

Head of School at The Howard Gardner School, Alexandria, VA

Session: Don't Send a Vegan to Slice the Sausage: A Guide to Intentional Professional Culture

Rebekah Jordan

Head of Lower School at Indian Mountain School, Lakeville, CT

Session: Cultivating Teacher Leadership in Small Schools

Rebekah Jordan is the Head of Lower School at Indian Mountain School.  A progressive educator, she previously served as the founding head of The Peak School in Frisco, Colorado and has worked as a classroom teacher, consultant, family advocate, and experiential educator. 

Laura Marsico

Co-Curricular Program Manager at The GreenMount School, Baltimore, MD

Session: The Power and Perils of Parent Volunteers

With her vivacious personality and deep commitment to the children and families of The GreenMount School, Laura Marsico is both a leader and a force for positive change at the school. A nearly 20 year teaching veteran of both public and independent schools (highly decorated, we may add!), Laura pioneered the Kindergarten program at GreenMount, creating curriculum and driving enrollment for 8 years. Seeing an opportunity in 2016 for both the school and GreenMount families, she left the Kindergarten classroom and led the effort to bring the after school enrichment program “in-house.” She created a wide and varied array of educational and entertaining activities for students in keeping with the GreenMount philosophy. In addition, by using her leadership prowess she completely overhauled the management structure of the Parent CO-OP, offering a better parent experience and ensuring that the school partners with each parent to best effect.

Betsy McKenna

Founder, Consultant and Coach at Exponential Returns, LLC

Session: The Power of School Culture

Betsy McKenna is the Founder of Exponential Returns, LLC, a company designed to help professionals in the academic and nonprofit communities advance individual and team performance by deepening conversations, tapping into creative minds and talents, and fostering strategic relationships. She is a certified coach through Columbia University's Coaching  Certification Program. Prior to her current work, Betsy was a senior administrator and teacher at the early elementary level where she gained experience at reputable independent schools in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.  

Dave Mullen

Head of School at The Nora School, Silver Spring, MD

Session: Stress Reduction for School Adults

Sara Narva

Theater, Dance & Sex Ed Teacher at The Crefeld School, Philadelphia, PA

Session: Power/Play

Sara Narva has worked at The Crefeld School for 11 years as a dance and theater teacher, advisor and sex educator.  She has been a sex educator for over 20 years and values creating an environment for students to think, learn and talk about complex issues they face. 

Christine Nick

Project Manager at The Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, New York, NY

Session: Using Music in an Interdisciplinary Setting

Christine Nick has a rich background in education including classroom instruction, curriculum development, and policy work. She is a project manager at The Rock and Roll Forever Foundation.

Sharlean Pillay

Counselor at Science Leadership Academy Middle School, Philadelphia, PA

Session: Everyone an Advisor: Building Intentional Communities of Care

Sharlean Pillay is a founding counselor at Science Leadership Academy Middle School. Previously she was a vocational school counselor in Philadelphia.

Quinn Simpson

Co-Founder, Coach and Trainer at Graydin, London, UK & New York, NY

Session: The Coaching Teacher

Quinn is a well-established coach and trainer, and co-founder of Graydin. She focuses on teacher, youth and business coaching, and excels in the areas of leadership, strategy development and communication skills. She has led over 400 workshops on coaching, leadership, confidence and talent management skills, and provided one-to-one coaching to over 350 clients. In addition, Quinn is a co-founder and Director of Operations of Akosia, a global charity that uses coaching as a facilitation technique in filmmaking projects for underprivileged children and women. Trained by the Coaches Training Institute, Make Change Work, and Coach U, Quinn is a certified Co-Active Coach and NLP Coach Practitioner. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an MA in Sociology and Social Anthropology after writing a dissertation that examined self-help books. 

Starr Snead

Founder, Advancement Connections

Session: Adding OOMPH to Development in Small Schools

Starr is the founder and principal of Advancement Connections, a firm dedicated to serving advancement professionals and volunteers in schools throughout the United States and internationally. Based in Charleston, South Carolina, Advancement Connections provides fundraising, constituency relations, marketing/enrollment, strategic planning and communications services exclusively to PS-12 schools. 

Starr is a frequent speaker at CASE and NAIS conferences. Her popular workshops and seminars offer practical solutions to today's development, enrollment and advancement challenges, combining more than 40 years of personal and professional experience with the "best practice strategies" of many of our nation's leading independent schools.