Public Programs

Welcome to Wild Leadership 2021

For five years, we gathered for three days in the spring at the beautiful Bosque Retreat Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and welcomed education leaders into an embodied, interactive, and rejuvenating experience centered on the Sofia Center’s 8 Principles of Wild Leadership. When we had to cancel last April’s immersive gathering due to Covid-19, none of us imagined that we wouldn’t be convening in person in 2021.  Here in March of 2021, as more and more people are getting vaccinated, we are filled with tremendous hope about the future but recognize that it’s still not possible to have a fully inclusive in-person gathering. While we look forward to that in 2022, we felt that this year — of all years — was not a year to forego the Wild Leadership Retreat.  If there were ever a time to pause, reflect, and reconnect with our purpose as leaders, it is now.  That brings us to this year’s offering…

A year into the pandemic, we’ve had the opportunity to think deeply about what kind of virtual container could offer a connected and restorative experience for those leading the way through this challenging time.  The result is Wild Leadership 2021: A Retreat for Education Leaders.  In our planning sessions, we’ve been calling it Wild Leadership: The Zoom Retreat of Your Dreams! as that captures our hope and intention! We’ve designed the retreat to be vibrant, spacious, interactive, and joyful.  While there are big ideas to explore through reflection and dialogue, we’ve made plenty of space for play, music, poetry, movement, and connection with one another.  We have not simply tried to adapt our highly-embodied retreat experience to a virtual platform.  Instead, we’ve streamlined, redesigned, let go, and created anew an offering that will be dynamic, energizing, and restorative.  We’ve taken seriously the word retreat and designed this year’s virtual gathering accordingly. We want every participant to leave the retreat restored, grounded, and rejuvenated — with new ideas and tools that will support the uncertain journey ahead.

A Few Details

– We will mail you a Wild Leadership package in advance of the retreat; this will include a journal and other supplies for our virtual gathering! Look forward to good old-fashioned mail!
– Please plan to attend the entire retreat.  We want to create the strongest sense of connection and community we can in the virtual space, and it simply doesn’t work well if everyone’s not present for the entire gathering.  Start and end times for the program portions of each day are listed on the invitation.
– We will send additional details and a welcome email with all login details, etc. a few days before the start of the retreat. 
– Of course, please contact us with any questions.

Who Participates?

The retreat is designed both for experienced leaders in need of reconnection with the purposes of their work and a tune-up of their leadership skills, as well as for emerging leaders who are at the beginning of their leadership journeys.  Past participants have included school principals, instructional coaches, department leaders, and deans, as well as education leaders working in education non-profits and government entities. Most have come from communities across New Mexico, although we have had participants from across the country.  Part of the richness of the retreat is the meaningful connection forged among participants coming from diverse organizations and backgrounds. We value shared expertise and the voice and wisdom of each participant.

Who Are the Retreat Leaders?

We look forward to meeting you at the retreat and hearing your leadership story!  In the meantime, here is a little bit about Sheryl, Tamisha, and Elsa, the Wild Leadership retreat leaders.  

What Participants Say about Their Experience

My experience at Wild Leadership was beyond wonderful.  It gave me great tools, connections, and insight into the work I do now and what I want to do in the future. -Giovianna Burrell, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Albuquerque

Getting the chance to meet and work with a very diverse group of educational learners is key for me. It is wonderful to explore and learn about current educational topics with individuals from private, public, urban, and rural schools, as well as from educational non-profits. I have been able to gain much deeper insight and have developed a much more global view of how various topics and initiatives affect different educational systems. –Lori Arnold, Cleveland Middle School, Albuquerque

It matters so much to me to know I have colleagues across the community who share in the vision of leading with love and bravery. To not be alone in these dark times is something of a solace, and Wild Leadership gave me new tools for accomplishing what I would like to as a leader. –Tanesia Hale-Jones, Escuela del Sol Montessori, Albuquerque

Leaders benefit when they have an opportunity to read, think, and reflect. The Sofia Center’s Wild Leadership Retreat fosters critical thinking and challenges educational leaders to innovate. –Julie Radoslovich, South Valley Academy, Albuquerque

The Sofia Center’s Wild Leadership Retreat was a marvelous and inspiring experience. The combination of wise leaders sharing their insights and passions with us, and the beauty and peace of the bosque, was magical.  Topics ranged from engendering positive cultural change to honoring and including the most marginalized in our communities to brass tacks items such as making meetings meaningful and effective. I emerged feeling re-energized and hopeful about my own potential as a leader and about what might be accomplished at our school. –Leslie Livingston, Desert Academy, Santa Fe