The Black Principals Network is excited to announce an impressive lineup of speakers for the Southern Regional Leadership Summit. On February 27-28 in Atlanta, attendees will hear from powerful voices, dynamic leaders, and learn from engaging sessions designed to support school leaders at every stage of their journey. 

Each speaker brings deep expertise, lived experience as a school leader, and a commitment to leadership that is both strategic and heart-centered. Here’s the lineup of speakers and their planned topics: 

Dr. Brandi Chin
‍Hope Is Not a Strategy: Building Real Accountability That Transforms Schools

This session introduces the V.E.R.B. framework, a practical system for building accountability cultures that drive results while honoring the humanity of your team. Developed through Dr. Chin’s experience founding Denver's top-performing middle school and coaching hundreds of principals nationwide, this approach moves beyond compliance and into genuine ownership.

Dr. David McGuire
Sending the Elevator Back Down with a Roadmap: L.E.A.D.S. to Leadership

This session positions leadership development as both an inward and outward practice. Leaders must deepen their own capacity, clarity, and confidence while simultaneously creating intentional pathways for others to rise. Grounded in the LEADS model: Leveling Up, Encouragement, Advancement, Development, and Support, participants will explore practical strategies that enhance self-reflection, decision-making, and personal accountability. 

Dr. Folasade Adekunle
For Administrators of Color Who Have Considered Rage Quitting/When the Paperwork Is Enuf

Black principals are often called to lead with excellence, resilience, and grace amidst relentless operational demands, emotional labor, and racialized expectations. But what happens when the cape feels heavy? Blending art, music, and poetry that reflect the daily challenges and triumphs of being a school administrator, this session provides participants with exercises in three grounding principles: savoring, sustaining, and soaring. 

Dr. Marva Tutt
Restore: Leading Without Losing Yourself — Sustaining the Wellness and Leadership Longevity of Black Principals

This session acknowledges the lived realities of Black principals and provides restorative and research-informed strategies that help them remain in leadership without losing themselves. Drawing from a powerful personal journey of hitting a breaking point, choosing healing, and returning with clarity and boundaries, this presentation offers a transparent and authentic lens into the challenges that leaders are often forced to push through silently.

Dr. Mike Brown
Not Without the South: Principals As a Key Lever for Improving Student Outcomes in the South

The National Center for Education Statistics reports that the American South educates the largest share of public school students nationwide, positioning the region at the center of efforts to improve U.S. education. "Not Without the South" is a research-driven professional learning session that invites educators to reimagine Southern principals not as building managers, but as academic leaders and the key drivers of student success.

JuDonne Hemingway
Mission Without Martyrdom: Sustainable Leadership Without Sacrificing Self, Community, or Power

Black principals lead with vision, heart, and deep commitment. Yet, too often their brilliance is extracted at the expense of their well-being. This session names a critical truth: Martyrdom is not a personal flaw, but a rational response to racialized expectations, constant scrutiny, and inequitable demands that normalize overextension as leadership. Using a research-informed, practice-tested framework, leaders will learn how to interrupt martyrdom through benevolent detachment, structural clarity, and liberatory leadership design.

F. Christopher Goins
Fireside Chat - Leadership Through Legacy

In this moderated fireside chat, BPN’s Executive Director, TaraShaun Gipson, sits down with F. Christopher Goins, a Surge Institute alum and President & CEO of Philadelphia Academies, for a reflective conversation on identity, impact, and legacy in today’s educational landscape. Grounded in Southern Black leadership traditions and national influence, this dialogue explores what it means to lead with clarity and conviction, while navigating complex systems, public responsibility, and generational expectations. 

Camile Melton Brown and Dr. Kristle Hodges Johnson
The Pivot: Reframing in the Eye of the Storm

Education leaders will be asked this central question: As issues arise in your school/district, are you looking at them through various lenses so that you can take action and move beyond (shock, disgust, frustration, depression, etc)? This session will provide leaders with the space to process, time to analyze, and tools to create a plan on how to respond with wisdom and the power to lead in bold ways.

‍

BPN invites school and district leaders across the region to join them for two days of rigorous learning, reflection, and connection. February 6 is the deadline to register, and space is limited. Secure your seat today!