Twelve Chicago Public Schools principals are up for the national stage at SXSW EDU 2027 in Austin — two panels and two hands-on workshops built with The Chicago Public Education Fund and Wise Leadership Consulting. Community voting helps decide what makes the program, and it closes Sunday, August 23 at 11:59 PM PT.
Voting is free and takes about two minutes: ① create a free SXSW account (60 seconds) ② click a button below ③ tap the ❤ next to the session title. You can vote once for each of the four sessions — four hearts, two minutes.
Through Hard Years: Climate & Results (Panel)
Principals Katina Stovall-Brown, Jamie Militello, and Heidy Moran, moderated by Alesia Franklin-Allen. Every school leader is in a hard year — the hard part just looks different. These principals led through exactly that and still strengthened climate and results.
Leading Under Pressure: Data, Trust, Shared Leadership (Panel)
Principals Jennifer Clayton, Folasade Adekunle, and Hamed Flores, moderated by Lekesha Coleman. The relational work of culture and trust, paired with the analytic work of facing hard data and distributing leadership.
Four Levers Against Chronic Absence (Workshop)
Principals Rafael Jiménez and Megan Kehr. A hands-on workshop from two leaders who drove measurable attendance improvement — leave with a plan you can launch within a month.
From Absence to Belonging (Workshop)
Principals Marcie Byrd and Chris Graves. Chronic absence looks like an attendance problem — underneath, it’s a belonging problem. Two turnaround principals show the shift that started it all.
Thank you for helping bring Chicago’s practitioner voice to the national education conversation. Please share this page: wiseleadershipconsulting.org/sxswedu
A partnership of Wise Leadership Consulting and The Chicago Public Education Fund, featuring principals of Chicago Public Schools.