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Lead from Within
The Compass Leader Fellowship
"For the first time in a decade, it felt like I could prioritize me and share stories that I've buried for years. This is incredibly rare in education, and now that I've experienced it, I know how important it is to find and create spaces like this if I want to remain in my role."
Cohort 3 Leader
One-On-One
Executive Coaching
4 In-Person
3-Day Convenings
Monthly
Virtual Convenings
Sara Carlson Striegel, Director of Leadership Development and the Program Director for the Leader Fellowship, is always eager to connect and share more about how we support leaders and school communities.
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Curious? Want to learn more?
Being a leader is one of the
loneliest roles in any community or organization.
Many leaders describe feeling as though they are on an island – carrying the responsibility for the wellbeing, performance and direction of a group of people who depend on them. The sheer complexity of leading a community of diverse stakeholders requires tremendous social, emotional, and relational energy and prowess, as well as a strong sense of identity and purpose. In our world today, we often approach that kind of complexity by breaking down problems into smaller parts and applying technical solutions and quick fixes.
Compass is different.
We believe that leaders already have the capacity and skill within themselves to move through the challenges they face in their role. Because of that, they don’t need more technical solutions to complex problems. Instead, they must turn inward, investigating their beliefs about themselves and their potential, then learning to shed patterns that no longer serve them in favor of new skills that align with their leadership goals. By doing so they begin to build something different: leadership that is more grounded, intentional, sustainable, and aligned with who they are and who their communities need them to. be.
"The most impactful leader development I've received."
In a community of purpose-driven leaders, Compass Leader Fellows reconnect and access their innate power and capacity by deep-diving into contemplative practice, narrative theory, and adaptive skill building. Through these practices and experiences, they strengthen their belief in themselves and return to their critical place in their organization's ecosystem to build cultures of vulnerability and growth that will be sustainable for years to come.
Our Leadership Framework
Find your Leadership Center
You will learn to stay present and balanced in the most critical moments.
With our support, you will develop a personal contemplative practice to keep you anchored during the inevitable storms of leadership.
Lean into your Leadership Edge
You will learn to welcome the next frontier of your development.
With our support, you will explore maps of your inner world that will reveal the limits of your own worldview and show you ways to liberate yourself more fully.
Write your Leadership Story
You learn to strengthen the storylines that serve you and renegotiate the ones that limit you.
With our support, you will use a narrative meaning-making framework to story the events of your life and leadership in strengths-based ways that reflectyour deepest values and allow you to lead authentically.
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Connect to your
Leadership Purpose
You will learn to recognize and understand your unique gifts and how you can offer them to the world.
With our support, you will discover a new way of connecting to your own purpose and align your current role and responsibilities to your gifts.
Who is eligible for the Fellowship?
This fellowship is designed for leaders at various level of organizations from executive level leaders to mid-level leaders. In an effort to ensure this is a connecting and meaningful experience, we group leaders based on the level of leadership they hold within their organization. For that reason, the Executive leader cohort is reserved for leaders at the Executive Director, Chief and Senior level. Our Mid-Level Leader cohort is designed for people in levels of leadership where they manage and support the wellbeing of teams, but also must respond to senior level leadership.
The Compass Leader Fellowship team determines which cohort is best suited to your needs based on the information you provide on your registration.
What are the time commitments required from participants?
The Fellowship requires 4 in-person 3-day convenings (see dates below). In addition, we meet once a month virtually. Each virtual meeting lasts one hour and requires no specific pre-work. These meetings are a continuation of the work we do together during our in-person gatherings.
When are the in-person convenings?
Below are the dates for our open cohorts. We do our best to accommodate leaders' availability when placing them in a cohort.
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[Cohort 12]
November 4-6, 2026 | April 7-9, 2027 | September 15-17, 2027 | May 3-5, 2028
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[Cohort 13]
December 2-4, 2026 | April 14-16, 2027 | October 20-22, 2027 | May 10-12, 2028
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INAUGURAL ONE-YEAR COHORT
[Cohort 14]
​February 24-26, 2027 | May 19-21, 2027 | August 25-27, 2027 | January 12-14, 2028
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What are the tangible deliverables that I’ll take with me after two years?
While the Fellowship is not centered on producing traditional deliverables, you will leave with a set of tangible tools and artifacts that continue to support your leadership beyond the experience.
These include:
- A clear articulation of your purpose and the impact of your work
Grounded in your own story and experience, not a generic framework
- Practices to stay centered and make decisions under pressure
Tools you can use in real time, not just in reflection
- A deeper understanding of your patterns, strengths, and edges as a leader
Including language and frameworks to continue working with them after your time in the Fellowship
- A leadership approach that is aligned with your values and context
Something you can return to and refine over time
- A set of relational practices for building trust, navigating tension, and leading others more effectively
- A community of leaders you can continue to learn from and lean on
Leaders also leave with more traditional artifacts—journals, reflections, and proven leadership frameworks—but the most meaningful outcomes are the ones that show up in how you lead every day.
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This sounds like therapy. Is it?
No, but it is much more inward-focused than most existing professional development opportunities. We don’t believe in applying technical solutions to isolated problems – we believe in caring for the people leading organizations, giving them the skills, ability, and wisdom to reflect, change, and grow.
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How many people are in a cohort, and who will they be?
How much does the Fellowship cost? What exactly am I getting?
Our cohorts are capped at 15 participants to create a strong sense of community and allow for direct support and coaching from our team. Cohorts are role-specific to allow participants to engage with peers working closely in their field. We divide cohorts into senior leaders (Superintendents, CEOs, etc.) and mid-level leaders to ensure you are in a space with other leaders who deeply understand your role's context. We also work hard to create a diverse group of participants for each cohort.
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The cost of the Fellowshp reflects the depth of the experience which includes four multi-day convenings, ongoing cohort sessions, available executvie coaching focused on improving your way of leading. This cost also covers all meals during training hours for each convening.
Leaders join the Fellowship from sectors with very different professional development resources. Rather than offering a single flat rate, we use a model that allows a full, cross-sector cohort to learn and grow together.
INAUGURAL ONE-YEAR FELLOWSHIP
For Profit
Standard Investment - $15,000
Partner Investment - $ 16,500 (helps subsidize educators)
Nonprofit
$10,000
School/School Network
$8,000 (subsidized)
TWO-YEAR FELLOWSHIP
$16,000.
We require a 10% deposit at the time of registration, with the remaining balance due two weeks prior to the first convening.
The cost of tuition covers 12 full days of in-person professional development, meals while on campus (breakfast and lunch), one evening social gathering, 14 hour-long virtual support as well as access to two executive coaches for one-off coaching needs as they arise over the length of the fellowship. Travel expenses are not included.
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The cost is outside my budget. What are my options?
A limited number of additional scholarships are available each year for leaders whose participation would meaningfully contribute to the cohort but for whom cost is a barrier. We welcome a conversation. Additionally, Fellows can divide tuition into payments to make the financial investment for feasible. Many fellows have successfully found philanthropy funds to cover the cost and/or travel cost. If you would liek support in navigating the search for philanthropic support, please don't hesitate to reach out.
FAQ
Meet the Facilitators
Sara Carlson Striegel and Dr. Travis Commons
will be your guides throughout the Fellowship.
Sara Carlson Striegel
Director of Leadership Development
Sara Carlson Striegel is a leadership developer with nearly two decades of experience supporting leaders grow in both their effectiveness and their humanity. With roots in education, she has served in a range of roles, including founding principal of an elementary school in Northwest Denver, where she led a community through the complexity of building something new from the ground up.
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In 2021, Sara joined The Compass Center at Valor Collegiate Academies as a Director of Leadership Development, where she works with leaders across sectors to deepen their capacity to lead through complexity, navigate competing demands, and stay anchored in a clear sense of purpose and identity. In her work, Sara integrates leadership best practices with emotional and physical wellbeing, identity development, and a relationship-centered approach to growth. As a bilingual, biracial leader, Sara brings a deep awareness of how culture, identity, and systems shape the way we lead. Her work is grounded in the belief that sustainable leadership requires not just skill, but self-awareness, alignment, and the courage to grow.
Travis Commons, PhD
Executive Director, National Impact
Dr. Commons has worked as an educator and researcher across a variety of settings, ranging from residential and clinical treatment to traditional and charter public schools. In 2014, Travis relocated from his long-time home of Chicago to Nashville to be the founding principal at Valor's first school site -- Flagship Academy -- which has been a top-performing middle school in the district every year since it has been open. Since it's founding, Valor has also become an innovation hub for pioneering a comprehensive human development (CHD) approach to schooling, centered around The Compass - an integration of habits of academic success, social-emotional learning, and identity development in a relationship-based approach to growth.
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Dr. Commons now leads the network's National Impact Team, in which he and his team offer a range of transformative programs that mitigate barriers and create pathways to connection and belonging in schools.