Back to Events
School Leadership

2025-26 School Leader Institute with Leadership + Design

Oct. 29 | Nov. 19 | Jan. 28 | Feb. 20 | Apr. 8

Wednesday, October 29, 2025
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM (EDT)

Location - TBD

The ADVIS School Leader Institute is a different kind of leadership training experience. Facilitated by Ryan Burke, Shu Shu Costa, and Antonio Viva from Leadership + Design, this Institute is grounded in the belief that transformative leadership combines both practical skills and mindsets and deep self-awareness.

Whether you're an emerging leader or a seasoned administrator, you'll build more capacity to lead teams through complexity and navigate challenges. Most importantly, you'll join a close cohort of educators across the region who will support your growth as you explore your unique leadership strengths and areas for development. In today's constantly-evolving world, the Institute will empower you to become a catalyst for the positive change your school community needs.

Program Description

Over the course of the year, participants will develop their vocabulary for leadership, build a cohort of trusted colleagues to learn with, and get ready for the next step in leadership. Topics covered will include:

  • Building self-awareness: We will explore your signature presence as leaders, your inner life as leaders, and how you’re showing up for others that you work with. Participants will explore why this matters to schools and to their success as leaders. 

  • Leading teams in human-centered ways: We will explore the fundamentals of group dynamics and models for change management in organizations. Why is change hard? How do groups get stuck? What is the job of a leader in helping others get unstuck and move forward?

  • Creative problem-solving: Participants will identify "wicked problems” in independent schools and practice some of the fundamentals of human-centered design thinking as a way to generate new ideas and get buy-in from colleagues.

  • Leading with a bias toward action: Participants will practice one of the hardest parts of leadership: having hard conversations, coaching others and engaging in conflict. They will also reflect on their learning and make a plan for their leadership next year.

  • Thinking like a futurist: Participants will discover why thinking like a futurist is a core skill for leaders, especially those who want to proactively design for an optimistic future.  We will help participants to learn basic skills such as signal hunting, writing and responding to scenarios, and generating many possible solutions to forecasted global risks.

 The Logistics

There will be five in-person, full day sessions to learn and reflect with your cohort. Participants will also get free membership in L+Doers Unite, along with an exclusive Slack channel to connect with other members of the cohort all year long.

Who Should Attend?

Participation in the ADVIS School Leader Institute is for current and aspiring leaders looking to stretch their thinking and grow both personally and professionally. Former participants included heads of school, division directors, deans, department chairs and classroom teacher-leaders. The diversity of roles and years serving in formal leadership helps to form a cohort that comes to this work with a variety of perspectives and lived experiences.

Participants should be willing to commit to attending all five, in person cohort gatherings, and should secure the support of their supervisors to attend each meeting as well. Most of all, participants should be prepared to be challenged, to be more curious than certain, and take responsibility for their own learning and growth.

The Facilitators

This program will be led by Ryan Burke, Shu Shu Costa, and Antonio Viva, our partners at Leadership + Design, a nationally recognized nonprofit that works with school leaders nationwide. 

Ryan Burkee is a Co-Founder and Partner at L+D. After 20 years working as a Teacher, Learning Specialist, Dean of Students, Principal/Division Head, in public and independent schools, Ryan joined L+D full-time as a senior partner. With a Master’s Degree in Applied Behavioral Science and experience in family and individual therapy and systems thinking, Ryan’s approach to working with school leaders and teams is unique and brings both a clinical lens as well as practical school leadership experience. Ryan is currently working with schools and organizational leaders as a coach as well as leading strategic planning, schedule re-design, evaluation and feedback systems, critical conversations and board training and other messy and ambiguous school challenges.

Ryan has presented at NAIS, the Association of Middle Level Education (AMLE), as well as delivered keynote presentations on the topics: Critical Conversations, Communication, Productive Conflict Resolution and the Intersection of Strategy and Execution in School Leadership Teams. Ryan lives in Carmel, IN with his wife and he has three children, two grown and one attending school and living at home.


Shu Shu Costa (she/her) is a Partner at L+D. She has been a teacher, a mentor, a division director, an assistant head of school, an enrollment director, a strategist, and a board member. Shu Shu has also been a city newspaper beat reporter, the managing editor at a glossy magazine, and her two books have been published by Simon & Schuster and Putnam. What joins all those experiences together is her love of and fascination for people and organizations and their remarkable stories, both the ones we tell to ourselves and the ones we use to create journeys and relationships with others.

In addition to partnering with schools on strategic planning and presenting at conferences, Shu Shu facilitates a number of national leadership cohorts with a focus on reflective practice and the conversations between our inner selves and our professional lives. She is the former treasurer of the Friends Council on Education and is currently a board member at Brooklyn Friends School. A graduate of Cornell University, Shu Shu is a master’s student at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. She is the proud mother of three young adult children and lives in New Jersey with her husband, a dog, and two grand-cats.


Antonio Viva (he/him) is a Partner at L+D. He is a seasoned educator, experience designer, strategic advisor and non-profit leader. Previously, he served as the Executive Director of Artisans Asylum, one of the oldest and largest makerspaces in the United States. Prior to his role at Artisans, Antonio spent 12 years as the Head of School at Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, MA. During his tenure, he designed and led transformative programs such as The Boston Ballet School Professional Division at Walnut Hill. He also served as Senior Research and Design Associate for Education Development Center, Inc. where he worked on a national school design project for the US Department of Education. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Union College in English and Teaching respectively.


A sought-after speaker and facilitator, Antonio is most curious about areas including creativity, design, futurist thinking, culture and leadership as a personal practice. He has been featured by numerous national and regional independent school associations across the United States. He resides in the Boston suburbs with his family and two cats and maintains his personal studio on Cape Cod.

Registration Options

Credits Price
Member School with ≤100 students
Price is per person.

$2,350.00 See QTY Discounts
Member School with 101-250 students
Price is per person.

$2,900.00 See QTY Discounts
Member School with 251-500 students
Price is per person.

$3,100.00 See QTY Discounts
Member School with >500 students
Price is per person.

$3,300.00 See QTY Discounts
Non-Member Ticket
Price is per person.
$4,200.00

NOTE

A minimum of 15 people is required for this program to run.


WHAT & WHEN

5, in-person full day sessions

  • Wednesday, October 29, 2025
  • Wednesday, November 19, 2025
  • Wednesday, January 28, 2026
  • Friday, February 20, 2026
  • Wednesday, April 8, 2026

ACT 48 CREDITS

  • You may request credit up to 7 days after the event.
  • Per the PA Department of Education, ADVIS is required to report your successful completion of Act 48 evaluation within 30 days of the event. 
  • Available to ADVIS members only. 
  • Contact Candyce Wilson for more information.

ACCESSIBILITY

We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. Please feel free to request an accommodation on the registration form. For inquiries about accessibility, please contact Membership and Outreach Manager Candyce Wilson. At least two weeks' advance notice will help us to provide seamless access.


EVENT CONTACT

Dena Torino, Director of Programming


ADVIS Event Policies and Disclaimers