Four women create an art project together with glue, paper, and small colorful objects while seated on the floor

Who We Are

Within our network there is a growing movement of locally rooted, globally informed leaders, including over 14,600 teachers currently in classrooms and 105,000 alumni leaders, reaching over a million children around the world.

The Global Leadership Accelerator supports these leaders to further develop the leadership skills and mindsets necessary to transform systems around them, so that all children have the opportunity to fulfill their potential. 

Our guiding belief is that to transform systems around us, we also must be willing to do the “inner work” to transform ourselves.

 

A female teacher in a red shirt and jacket has her arms around six students, one of whom rests her head on the teacher's shoulder A female teacher in a red shirt and jacket has her arms around six students, one of whom rests her head on the teacher's shoulder

The Need for a New Paradigm of Leadership

Given the systemic nature of inequity, there is no one solution to ensuring all children have access to the education, support, and opportunity to fulfill their potential. We need many solutions and sustainable systemic change, which requires the collective leadership of many people working together across all parts of the systems that impact children.

Collective leadership requires a new set of skills and mindsets that have not been traditionally taught, such as: 

  • understanding the dynamics of power & privilege in our systems
  • forging relationships across lines of difference, and 
  • holding spaces for diverse groups of people to come together and co-create solutions 

And this is just a start.

What We Do

The Global Leadership Accelerator cultivates leaders who, grounded in a deep sense of purpose and consciousness about themselves and the world around them, work collectively with many others to disrupt inequitable systems and imagine new ways forward.

We offer a range of programs that bring together leaders from across the network to develop their leadership and accelerate their impact. These programs target leaders at all levels, from CEOs of network partner organizations to first-year classroom teachers. 

We support leaders across our network to develop the collective leadership capacities necessary for systemic change: 

  • Grow awareness of self 
  • Understand one’s own relationship to the system 
  • Unlearn biases & limiting beliefs
  • Center ways of being, not just doing
  • Develop shared purpose
  • Pause & reflect 
  • Align daily actions to purpose
  • Operate with flexibility & agility
  • See strengths & wisdom in others
  • Build trusting relationships
  • Create inclusive spaces
  • Hold space for conflict & difference
  • Understand history, context, and roots of inequity in a system
  • Center lived experience 
  • Disrupt inequitable practices
  • Enable individual & collective healing
  • See our work as systemic
  • Build diverse coalitions
  • Co-create solutions
  • Navigate uncertainty & complexity
  • Grow the leadership of others
  • Be resilient & learn from challenges
  • Seek out diverse perspectives
  • Imagine new possibilities
  • Inspire others

Our Leadership Offerings

We offer a range of programs that bring together leaders from across the network to develop their leadership and accelerate their impact. These programs target leaders at all levels, from CEOs of network partner organizations to first year classroom teachers. 

 

Select examples of our leadership offerings

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) fellowship over 16 weeks to build a global network of practitioners who can bring DEI-informed leadership to their local contexts

Competencies: understand roots of inequity, disrupt inequitable practices, unlearn biases, hold space for conflict & difference

 

CEO Peer Learning Groups (PLGs) in which 3-4 CEOs and an executive coach gather virtually each month to work through CEOs’ biggest leadership challenges

Competencies: grow awareness of self, build trusting relationships, navigate uncertainty & complexity, pause & reflect

Trauma-informed workshop series to increase participants’ capacities in trauma-informed leadership for themselves and in classrooms, informed by the science of learning

Competencies: enable individual & collective healing, see strengths and wisdom in others, see our work as systemic

Our Approach: Activating Transformative Learning

  • Our flagship programs are co-created by global experts alongside local practitioners.
  • We work with global experts to access cutting-edge thinking in domains such as trauma and healing, deep listening, systems thinking, and adult development. 
  • Equally, our programs are informed by diverse local practitioners, who bring experience and insight from classrooms, communities, and organizations across 60+ countries. 

  • While traditional programs focus on imparting new knowledge, we often focus on the unlearning of implicit mindsets or beliefs that sit under the surface.
  • Disorienting experiences invite individuals to question their mental models, mindsets, and hidden assumptions. 
  • Ultimately, these approaches lead to new ways of seeing the world, creating possibilities for transformative rather than incremental change.

  • We recognize that shifting mindsets and skills takes time, so we offer a suite of programs for practitioners to build capacities over time with multiple levels and modalities.
  • Intensive fellowships and coaching programs provide space for deeper learning, while shorter workshop series enable targeted skill-building.
  • We also offer ongoing community spaces for peers to deepen their connections and continue developing together. 
A web of faces of diverse leaders connected with lines

A Multiplier Effect

We expect thousands of leaders around the world to benefit from the Global Leadership Accelerator in the coming years, and those in turn, to influence many others. Many of our flagship programs include a “train the trainer” component so that practitioners can then lead this work in their home contexts. 

We also invite some practitioners to become adjunct global faculty of the Accelerator so that our offerings are co-led and co-designed by those who are closest to the challenges.

 

Get Involved

If you are interested in learning more about our offerings or supporting our work, please reach out to the Head of the Global Leadership Accelerator, Radha Ruparell.