Heads' Summit

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26
8:00–9:00 AM	Badge Pick-Up and Registration
8:15–9:15 AM	Breakfast
9:15–10:00 AM	Opening Remarks Debra Wilson, president, NAIS Morva McDonald, vice president for leadership and governance, NAIS
10:00–10:15 AM	Break
10:15 AM–12:15 PM	Breakout Sessions
12:15–1:15 PM	Lunch Grab a plate and enjoy catching up with other heads of school over lunch. If you wish, join one of the optional affinity lunch tables to connect with heads with shared interests or experiences.
1:15–3:15 PM	Summit Session: Amanda Ripley with Hélène Biandudi Hofer Many leaders try to avoid conflict, hoping it will resolve on its own. That might have worked in the past, but it doesn’t work now. In an age of runaway conflict, the only good option is to use conflict to get smarter and stronger. By seeing conflict as an opportunity rather than a personal attack, you can uncover critical information, stay focused on your mission—and sleep better at night. In this fast-paced, hands-on workshop, journalists and conflict mediators Amanda Ripley and Hélène Biandudi Hofer help teams develop the habits and skills of “Good Conflict.” They use humor, multimedia content, role-play scenarios, and storytelling to help leaders create a culture that is conflict-resilient.
3:15–3:30 PM	Closing

NAIS HEADS' SUMMIT
	SUPER Early Bird (Through October 18)	Early Bird (Through January 24)	Standard
Heads' Summit: NAIS Member Pricing	$260	$260	$310
Heads’ Summit: Nonmember Pricing*	$350	$350	$400

New York Times best-selling author and Washington Post contributing columnist Amanda Ripley is co-founder of Good Conflict, a media and training company that helps people reimagine conflict. She has written three award-winning, nonfiction books.  

High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out describes what happens when regular conflict distills into a good-versus-evil kind of feud, the type with an "us" and a "them." It is an evidence-based manual for communicating and staying sane in the current age of runaway conflict. The Smartest Kids in the World follows three American teenagers who spent one year far from home, attending public high school in the countries with the strongest education systems in the world. It was published in 15 countries, turned into a documentary film, and chosen by The Economist, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Amazon as one of the most notable books of the year. The Unthinkable chronicles the stories and wisdom of people who have survived disasters of all kinds—from hurricanes to terrorist attacks. It was published in 15 countries, turned into a PBS documentary, and selected by Hudson Booksellers as one of the Top 10 Nonfiction Books of the year.  

Earlier in her career, Ripley spent a decade writing about human behavior for Time magazine in New York, Washington, and Paris. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Politico, The Guardian, and The Times of London. Ripley has appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX News, and NPR. She has spoken at the Pentagon, U.S. Senate, U.S. Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, and dozens of conferences. 
 

Hélène Biandudi Hofer

Hélène Biandudi Hofer, a journalist and a documentary filmmaker, is co-founder of Good Conflict, a media and training company that helps people reimagine conflict.

For nearly a decade, she led an award-winning news magazine program focused on exploring remedies to societal challenges. Her work spans investigating police reform in Camden, New Jersey, to examining education opportunities in South Sudan.

Most recently, Hélène developed and managed the Solutions Journalism Network’s Complicating the Narratives (CTN) project. CTN is a journalistic practice that can transform news coverage about controversial issues. She trained more than 1,000 journalists across 125 newsrooms throughout the world. She has worked with CBS, NPR, and PBS. She credits her passion for journalism to her Nkoko (great-grandmother), who was the oral historian of the Biandudi family in Kinshasa, DRC.