Penn GSE Organizes Transformative Leadership Professional Development in Alabama

After three years of ongoing professional learning and leadership development as part of the Equity-Centered Pipeline Initiative (ECPI), school leaders from eight districts across the country gathered in Montgomery, Alabama, in early March for what many described as the most powerful experience of the project. ECPI is an ongoing program funded by The Wallace Foundation and curated by Catalyst @ Penn GSE and its Center for School Study Councils (CSSC). The Alabama trip, its latest convening, was centered on history, humanity, and the kind of reflective leadership today’s schools urgently need. 

The ECPI initiative aims to produce school leaders who can advance educational equity and lift student learning. It provides a rare professional development model: one where district teams learn together, return home to implement ideas, and then come back to the group to reflect, refine, and expand their approaches. 

“It’s pretty unique,” said Blythe McCormack, program coordinator at CSSC and project manager for this Wallace grant. “Most principals are not getting together with principals from other parts of the country. These districts span the East Coast, the West Coast, the South, the Midwest—they’re all dealing with different realities, and yet they’ve learned so much from each other.”

The recent convening was a capstone experience of sorts for the school leaders who have been meeting both virtually and in locations around the country since September 2023. It was intentionally designed to bring together three threads that had been woven throughout the ongoing ECPI work: systems thinking, leader well being, and the ability to remain grounded when confronting complexity. Nothing could make those lessons more vivid than the experience awaiting participants in Montgomery.

Thanks to Howard Stevenson, Penn GSE’s Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education, and his brother, Bryan, acclaimed public interest lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), the group received extraordinary access to The Legacy Sites, EJI’s racial injustice monuments that include the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. 

For many attendees, the visit was overwhelming, eye opening, and necessary.

“The convening in Montgomery was a transformative moment, synthesizing the three years of leadership learning cultivated through the ECPI Professional Learning Community,” said CSSC Director Tim Foxx, who helped shape and facilitate it. “The Legacy Museum invited leaders to confront complex historical realities while reflecting on how their cognition and nervous systems respond to potentially destabilizing truths.”

“The trip and its itinerary were critical because they reminded us that our experiences as school leaders and as individuals are part of something much larger than ourselves,” said Calvin Hooks, principal of Hyde-Addison Elementary within the District of Columbia Public Schools. “As leaders, we have the responsibility to honor the sacrifices of the past by ensuring that the opportunities available today are expanded for the generations who follow. Experiences like this deepen our sense of purpose and remind us that leadership is not only about managing schools, but about shaping a more just and hopeful future for our students and communities.”

Participants moved from the museum to the riverfront sculpture park to the memorial—America’s first comprehensive site dedicated to memorializing racial terror lynchings—before ending the day in conversation with Bryan Stevenson himself. Throughout, a team from the Lion’s Story—led by Howard Stevenson and colleagues trained in racial literacy and nervous system regulation—supported participants in recognizing and managing the physiological responses that arise in challenging learning environments.

“One of the clearest lessons from the week was how closely leadership cognition is tied to nervous system regulation,” Foxx said. “When leaders encounter complex histories or emotionally charged conversations, physiological responses can narrow thinking—or, when recognized and regulated, expand reflection and dialogue.”

The Alabama experience was not solely about history. On its second day, the group gathered at EJI’s Convening Center for a full day of programming led by Lion’s Story. The sessions helped participants synthesize what they had witnessed and connect it to their responsibilities as school leaders: creating systems that honor human dignity, support all students, and maintain coherence even in times of social uncertainty.
McCormack noted that although the work is sometimes publicly framed as “leader well being workshops,” the underlying goals have always been deeper. The Wallace Foundation’s vision for ECPI was to create equity centered leadership pipelines—leaders who understand restorative practices, cultural responsiveness, and systems level thinking and who return to their districts prepared to mentor others.

“We are grateful for the way this partnership has evolved over the last three years,” said Angel Miles Nash, senior program officer at The Wallace Foundation. “Our participants’ reflections have evidenced how the principal professional learning community experiences have strengthened their equity-centered leadership in districts, schools, and communities.”

For three years, the group engaged in a range of professional learning experiences, from sessions on Multitiered System of Supports (MTSS) to decision making frameworks and racial literacy. But their time in Montgomery stood apart. “It was very, very special,” said McCormack. “And having Howard and the Lion’s Story team there meant people had the tools to process what they saw instead of shutting down.”

“One thing I want to emphasize is how deeply grateful I am for the opportunity to have experienced the unique learning experiences that ECPI has provided over the years,” said Hooks. “The initiative has been a powerful reminder that the world is far more expansive than the district specific bubbles we often operate within. . . . It has also been incredibly reenergizing. In the role of a school leader, you are constantly pouring into others, supporting students, staff, and families every day. ECPI created space for leaders to pour into themselves, to reflect, grow, and reconnect with their purpose.”

With The Wallace Foundation extending its partnership with Catalyst for another year, the Alabama convening now serves as a pivotal bridge into the next phase of learning.

Foxx sees it as a turning point: “Montgomery became a defining moment—demonstrating that sustainable systems change requires leaders who think across systems, imagine better futures, and lead with humanity at the center.”