Sessions and Speakers

Announcing Keynote Speaker

Carrie Grimes

Presenting:

Response-able School Leadership

What does it mean for socially responsible school leaders (especially heads and trustees) to consider how their actions—and inactions—affect the world around them and the delicate ecosystems in which our schools exist?  In the context of independent school governance, what exactly are the boundaries and contours of social responsibility? With increasing frequency, school stakeholders (parents, alumni, faculty, students) are demanding to know what our schools stand for and what they value. Climate change; diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging; and human rights are just a few of the common issues that intertwine with strategic initiatives and operational decisions related to many facets of school life, including curricula, admission, and student and employee wellness. Viewing governance through a lens of responsibility is a valuable opportunity to consider what our stakeholders are asking of board members and how expectations related to leading responsibly  track with other key facets of school service. This presentation will explore the phenomena of response-able leadership and school governance practices, and offer practical tips and tools for today’s independent school trustees and leaders. This session can be expanded into a deep dive workshop in which participants engage in deliberative techniques related to mini-cases in order to skill-build their responsible leadership toolkit.

About Carrie Grimes

Carrie Grimes is an Assistant Professor of the Practice in the LPO department and also serves as the Director of the Independent School Leadership Master's program. She completed her Ed.D. in Leadership and Learning in Organizations at Vanderbilt University, where her research focused on social identity and community of practice theoretical applications to school settings. Carrie's career has been centered in independent school leadership, including roles in administration, teaching, counseling, and institutional advancement in schools and programs in New York, California, and Maryland. Throughout her career, she has focused on community building, imaginative problem solving, and cross-team collaboration across a wide range of stakeholder groups including toddlers through adolescents, parents, adult learners, donors and alumni. Carrie has a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and a M.A. in Applied Psychology from New York University.

Closing Keynote

Greg Bamford of Leadership+Design

Presenting:

Curiosity As An Ongoing Strategic Stance

While strategic planning is a recurring experience in healthy independent schools, it’s often treated as a discrete event with clear start and end dates. In other words, schools sometimes don’t think of themselves as making strategy until the first committee meeting – and many of our constituents think the work is over when they read the published plan. 

Treating strategy as a moment in time, rather than an ongoing way of working together, is a missed opportunity for Heads and trustees. In a world that’s full of unanticipated events, leaders need to stay curious and agile, making strategic decisions regardless of whether they’re currently writing a plan. Equally importantly, a relationship rooted in curiosity helps trustees and Heads form stronger, enduring partnerships.

This workshop is about curiosity as an ongoing strategic stance, about developing strategy even when you are not doing “strategic planning.” Drawing models from the world of schools as well as the corporate and social sectors, this workshop will articulate a model for ongoing work that can help you build your strategic capacity, regardless of when you start your next strategic plan. 

About Greg Bamford

Greg Bamford (he/him) is a Co-Founder and Partner at L+D. Prior to this, Greg was Associate Head of School for Strategy and Innovation at Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma, Washington, and Head of School at the innovative Watershed School in Boulder, Colorado. During his time at Watershed, the young school grew to full enrollment and achieved ACIS accreditation for the first time. He is currently on the Board of Trustees for his alma mater, The Overlake School in Redmond, Washington, and the Advisory Board for The Hatch School, a new, independent girls’ high school that opened in Seattle, Washington in 2022. 

With his experience in school leadership, Greg brings a strategic lens to leadership development, innovation, and change management for Leadership+Design clients. He is particularly passionate about building leadership capacity and the cultural muscle to enact needed change. Greg has been a featured speaker at education conferences nationally and his writing has appeared in publications like Independent School, Net Assets, and The Yield. Greg lives in Tacoma, Washington with his wife and two children. 

Focus Sessions 

11:00-12:00 - Focus Session A

A1.  Is Your Mission Statement Passe? And Is Your Marketing All Wrong? with Skip Kotkins

This is a session about how schools can introduce a true "customer orientation" in their marketing. It starts with a fun review of a bunch of mission statements that don't work very well (true of most of them) and ends with some basic customer orientation training for marketing.  

Skip Kotkins, Carney, Sandoe & Associates
About half of Skip Kotkins’ work at CS&A is leading senior executive searches; the other half consists of governance 

consulting, which includes designing and leading board retreats, helping schools create their strategic plans, board training, and special governance projects. The two halves of his work improve each other, as Skip likes to say that he works at the intersection of leadership and strategy. Skip has led countless searches and worked with schools in more than two dozen states and internationally in places as diverse as Vietnam, Jordan, Korea, Mexico City, the Netherlands, the Dominican Republic, and more. He is pleased to say that he has done work with the largest (two searches for Punahou School, HI) and some of the smallest schools in the country, as well as Montessori and Waldorf, coeducational and single gender, boarding and day schools, schools serving gifted learners, and schools serving a neurodiverse population. 
 
Skip spent a career leading a consumer products company and serving on corporate boards. He was both an Economic Advisor and a Branch Board director in the Federal Reserve System, and he advised the U.S. Government on international trade for 17 years. He considers himself a “non-profit board junkie” having served on dozens of them, and chaired eight, including rare extended terms as a board member and officer of both NWAIS and NAIS. He helped write NAIS’ “Principles of Good Practice” and has been a contributor to NAIS’ “Trustee Handbook” and its “Head Search Handbook.” He is also very proud that he was the Chair of the 105-member Seattle Chamber of Commerce board when NAIS last held its Annual Conference in Seattle. Skip is a graduate (and former Board Chair) of Lakeside School (WA). He earned a bachelors degree from Williams College and he has an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is an avid snow skier and avid (but lousy) golfer. He was a crew coach for both Williams College and Wellesley College. He and his wife, Jackie, enjoy visiting their daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren in NYC, and they are thrilled that their son, daughter-in-law, grandson, and new granddaughter live nearby in Seattle.

A2. Succeeding at Succession Planning with Julie Faulstich, Principal, Stony Creek Strategy 

Succession planning often falls to the bottom of the list when boards have so many other, more urgent priorities for their school communities. It’s also a multilayered and potentially sensitive topic. It can be easier to pretend the current moment will continue indefinitely, even though we are all aware no situation remains static forever. This session will discuss the complications and opportunities of both head of school and board chair succession planning and how to leverage tools of good governance such as the head’s annual evaluation and the time of contract renegotiation, governance committee functions, annual institutional goal-setting and strategic planning to set up the school for success when the time for transition arrives. 

 

 

Julie Faulstich, Principal, Stony Creek Strategy 

1:00-2:00 - Focus Session B

 

 

B1.  Engaging in Diversity, Inclusion, and Action: The Ins and Outs of Impactful Board Governance with Liza Talusan: Educator, Speaker, Leaders, Writer, Coach and Parent 

Commitment to diversity, inclusion and action are a community wide effort, and the work of the Board of Trustees and Administrative Teams can serve as both a springboard and a barrier to this work. What is the role of the Board and of Administrative Teams in addressing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion?  What is the impact of a Board and Admin Team that are not ready to address the conflicts and risk inherent in this work? What action steps must we build in order to be strategic in our work? This is a helpful interactive series to guide boards and governance structures to prepare for the difficult and important work of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice.

Dr. Liza (LIE-zuh) Talusan (taLOOS-ahn) is an educator, speaker, leader, writer, coach and parent.

With over 25 years of experience in PreK-graduate education, Liza is an engaging facilitator in conversations about diversity, anti-racism, bias, privilege and power and creates environments that allow for people to discuss these difficult topics openly. Dr. Talusan has been invited to more than 375 organizations across the country and internationally to facilitate dialogue groups, workshops, strategic planning, change management, and community focused sessions. 

Liza is the recipient of numerous awards including "Best 40 Under 40"; NASPA Region I Mid-Level Professional Award; NASPA APIKC VIP Award; Asian Women for Health's Peer Leader Award; Promise in Action Mentoring Nominee; Network for Equity, Excellence in Education Award; the REAPA (AERA) Dissertation of the Year Award; the Harriet Buescher Lawrence Prize from Connecticut College; The Early Career Award (REAPA); the YMCA Leadership Award; and a number of institutional grants. 

She earned her Bachelor degree from Connecticut College; Masters of Arts from New York University; Ph.D. from University of Massachusetts Boston; Certificate in Human Resources; and her PCC Coaching Credentials from the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching. Liza is currently a faculty member in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Massachusetts Boston where she teaches courses on leadership and anti-racism.

 

Liza has been a guest on a number of podcasts focused on educational equity and is the new co-host for the podcast Teaching While White. Liza’s book, “The Identity Conscious Educator: Building habits and skills for more inclusive schools”,published by Solution Tree Press, is the 2023 Gold Medal Recipient of IPPY Awards. Her new book “Identity-Conscious Practice in Action” was released in November 2024 and published by Routledge Press.  

 

  B2. Boards That Work: The What, How, and Why of Good Governance with Lynn Wendell, Independent School Governance Expert

Lynn Wendell, Independent School Governance Expert

What makes a Board truly effective? This session offers a practical review of governance fundamentals, with a focus on clear roles and responsibilities, structures that support accountability and impact, and the often-overlooked power of Board culture. We'll reflect on what good governance looks like—and feels like—in action. Through brief partner conversations and shared insights, participants will connect core principles with real-world situations. 

Lynn’s work typically deals with Board governance, development and the board’s role in development, Board Chair coaching, retreat facilitation, Head transition, Mission and Vision process, Strategic Planning, organizations facing potentially severe financial situations, and other special projects or challenges. 

For more than 20 years before offering her services to others, Lynn served on the boards of trustees of three San Francisco 

independent schools. From 1989-1995, Lynn was a Trustee of Town School for Boys, where she also served as Chair of the Annual Fund (1994-1995), Chair of the Buildings and Grounds Committee during a theater and library renovation, Co-Chair of a $6 million capital campaign and Vice-Chair of the Board for her final two years. At The Hamlin School, Lynn served as a Trustee from 1996-2003 and was a founding member of the Board’s Committee on Community as well as a member of the Development and Finance committees. From 1996-2004 Lynn served on the Board of Trustees of San Francisco University High School (UHS) and was Board Chair from 1999-2004, during which time there was a Head of School transition, a $2 million effort to raise funds for technology, a theater renovation and a major $10.0 million campaign to raise funds for endowment. After completing her term as Chair, Lynn became a Trustee Emerita of UHS and co-chaired a $15.0 million building campaign that successfully concluded in June, 2009. 

Lynn was involved in the development of strategic plans for all three schools during her periods of board service.   In addition, Lynn has served as vice-chair of Northern California for the UC Berkeley Parents Fund, CoChair of the Dartmouth Parents Fund, class captain of the Williams College Parent Fund, and a member of the Summerbridge San Francisco Advisory Board. She is a former member of the advisory board for the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education a former member of the development committee of KIPP Bay Area Schools. She is currently Vice-Chair of the Board, member of the executive committee, and Chair of the Development Committee of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. 

She is a past member of the trustee committee of the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) and ISCA (Independent Schools Chairpersons Association), and she has presented at several CAIS annual conferences.  Lynn and her husband, Peter, live in San Francisco and have six children ranging in age from 24-32.  Lynn’s prior work experience includes account management positions at NW Ayer (New York), J. Walter Thompson (Chicago) and J. Walter Thompson (San Francisco) during the period 1977-1984.  Lynn graduated from Princeton University in 1977 with an A.B. in English Literature. Her other interests include classical piano, hiking and spinning/cycling.  

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