2025 BIPOC Symposium
THIS EVENT IS NOW SOLD OUT. JOIN OUR WAITLIST BELOW TO BE ALERTED IF TICKETS BECOME AVAILABLE.
December 4 & 5, 2025 | The Verve Hotel, Tapestry Collection by Hilton | Natick, MA
A Gathering Rooted in Belonging, Healing, and Collective Power
Join fellow BIPOC educators, administrators, and staff from independent schools across New England for this 1.5-day gathering. The AISNE BIPOC Symposium is a space to recharge while learning, connect with colleagues who share your lived experience, and engage in honest, uplifting conversations about what it means to lead, teach, and thrive in predominantly white institutions.
This is more than a professional development event—it’s a celebration of community.
Whether you are looking for affinity space, career guidance, shared strategy, or simply a chance to exhale and laugh with people who get it, this experience will center your needs, your voice, and your joy.
What to Expect:
- Affirming Community: Dedicated time to be in affinity with other BIPOC professionals navigating the unique challenges—and opportunities—of independent schools.
- Inspiring Conversations: Dynamic facilitators Jason Craige Harris and Martha Haakmat will guide a series of sessions that explore how we sustain ourselves, reclaim rest, build solidarity, and rise together in this work.
- The Leadership Lounge: One-on-one coaching with a phenomenal group of BIPOC consultants and mentors—offering personalized support on your journey.
- Networking: From welcome receptions and cocktail hours to intentional lunch conversations and casual connections, you’ll find plenty of space to build lasting relationships.
- Affinity + Strategy Sessions: Gather with colleagues across shared racial, ethnic, and professional identities to exchange ideas, share best practices, and lift each other up.
- Restorative Offerings: Begin your day with yoga or mindfulness, and leave with tools for sustainable self-care, grounded leadership, and community-rooted action.
Who Should Attend:
This event is designed for BIPOC-identifying faculty, staff, administrators, and school leaders working in independent schools. You’ll find space here to connect, grow, and recharge.
Pricing and Hotel
| Number of Attendees | AISNE Member Schools | Non-Member School |
| 1 – 3 | $519/pp | $619/pp |
| 4 – 9 | $470/pp | $570/pp |
| 10 – 12 | $415/pp | $515/pp |
This event is now sold out. If you would like to be added to our event waitlist, please complete the form linked below. We will contact you only if tickets become available. Please note that there is a limit of 12 people per school.
Hotel reservations are not included.
Join the Waitlist
We strive to create an inclusive learning environment for all. If you have any questions or accessibility needs, please contact us at info@aisne.org.
Hotel Information
The Verve Hotel, Tapestry Collection by Hilton
1360 Worcester St, Natick, MA
(508) 653-8800
AISNE has a block of rooms reserved at the The Verve Hotel for the evening of December 4th and December 5th. The rate is $139/nt + taxes for a king bedroom. To book your reservation please click here. Please note that reservations to the AISNE block must be made on or before November 4, 2025, and are based on availability.
Agenda at a Glance
Thursday, December 4, 2025
- 3:00 – 5:00 PM | Registration
- 3:00 – 5:00 PM | Leadership Lounge: One-on-One Conversations
- 5:00 – 6:00 PM | Welcome Reception
- 6:15 – 7:15 PM | Opening Connection: Grounding in Community
- 7:30 – 9:00 PM | All-Attendee Dinner
- 9:00 PM – | Cocktails and Conversation
Friday, December 5, 2025
- 7:00 – 8:00 AM | Morning Activities
- 7:00 – 9:00 AM | Breakfast & Leadership Lounge
- 9:15 – 10:15 AM | General Session: Thriving, Not Just Surviving
- 10:30 – 11:30 AM | Affinity Groups
- 11:45 AM – 12:45 PM | General Session: Reclaiming Rest, Resistance, and Solidarity
- 12:45 – 1:45 PM | Lunch
- 1:45 – 3:00 PM | General Session: Rooted and Rising
- 3:15 – 4:00 PM | Closing Connection
- 4:00 – 5:00 PM | Farewell Reception
- 5:00 PM — | Dinner-On-Your-Own (Optional Dinner Groups for Guests Staying Overnight)
Detailed Agenda
Thursday, December 4
3:00 – 5:00 PM | Arrival, Check-In, and Leadership Lounge Meetings (1:1’s)
5:00 – 6:00 PM | Welcome Reception
Join us as we kick off the Symposium with a warm and welcoming evening reception. This is a chance to connect with colleagues, meet new friends, and build community before the full program begins. Enjoy light refreshments, conversation, and an opportunity to set the tone for two days of inspiration, reflection, and collective learning.
6:15 – 7:15 PM | Opening Connection: Grounding in Community
This opening session offers space to arrive fully, connect with one another, and reflect on the shared purpose that brings us together.
7:30 – 9:00 PM | All-Attendee Buffet Dinner
9:00 PM — | Cocktails & Conversation
Friday, December 5
7:00 – 8:00 AM | Morning Activities
Guided Yoga
Facilitated by: Ivy Alphonse-Crean | Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Dedham Country Day School (MA)
Slow down and restore your energy with a guided yoga session focused on gentle movement, mindful breathing, and deep relaxation. This calming practice is designed to release tension, support balance, and create space for reflection and renewal. Open to all levels; no prior experience needed.
Mindfulness & Breathwork Session
Faciliated by: Jason Craige Harris
Pause and reconnect with yourself through a guided session of mindfulness and intentional breathing. This gentle practice will invite presence, clarity, and calm, offering tools to center your mind and restore balance throughout the Symposium. No prior experience needed.
7:00 – 9:00 AM | Buffet Breakfast and Leadership Lounge Meetings (1:1s)
9:15 AM – 10:15 AM | Thriving, Not Just Surviving: A Conversation on Leading, Healing, and Creating Change
Start the day in community with a powerful fishbowl conversation featuring dynamic individuals of color who are creating meaningful change in education and beyond—without losing themselves in the process. In this honest and uplifting dialogue, Jason and Martha will share personal stories, strategies, and wisdom about how they sustain their leadership while navigating systems not built for them. Together, we’ll explore what it means to thrive as BIPOC professionals: how we care for ourselves, set boundaries, cultivate joy, and stay connected to purpose. This session will offer inspiration, connection, and a collective reminder that we deserve to lead, live, and flourish.
10:30 – 11:30 AM | Affinity Groups
11:45 AM – 12:45 PM | Reclaiming Rest, Resistance, and Solidarity
In predominantly white institutions, BIPOC leaders and professionals often carry unseen emotional labor while navigating power dynamics, cultural expectations, and systemic inequities. This session creates a space for reflection, connection, and strategy-building around what it means to lead authentically while resisting assimilation and burnout. Through a blend of presentation, table conversations, and embodied activities, we will explore three interconnected themes: navigating whiteness while holding leadership roles, reclaiming rest and joy as forms of resistance, and building solidarity across different racial and professional identities within our communities. You will leave with a renewed sense of purpose, shared language, and tools to sustain yourself and each other in the work.
12:45 – 1:45 PM | Lunch
Community lunch with time for informal connection and recharging.
1:45 – 3:00 PM | Rooted and Rising: Building Collective Power and Personal Vision
In this culminating session of the day, we’ll shift from reflection to activation—taking the themes of thriving, resistance, and solidarity and grounding them in our lived experiences and hopes for the future. Through a series of interactive activities, small-group dialogue, and creative visioning, we’ll explore:
- What sustains us in our leadership and identities?
- What boundaries and practices do we need to hold onto rest and joy?
- How can we build deeper solidarity across roles, schools, and racialized experiences?
You will have space to identify the conditions you need to thrive, map out personal and collective intentions, and celebrate one another’s wisdom. This session is designed to be restorative and energizing—closing the day with connection, clarity, and community. Whether you walk away with a renewed commitment, a new collaborator, or simply a deep breath, you’ll leave rooted in purpose and rising with power.
3:15 – 4:00 PM | Closing Connection: Reflect, Recharge, Reimagine
We’ll end our day in community, returning to a circle to reflect on what we’ve heard, felt, and created together. This closing space will offer a moment to breathe, be witnessed, and honor the wisdom in the room. Through ritual, storytelling, and intentional pause, this closing circle invites you to carry forward the joy, insight, and solidarity built today. Come as you are—rooted, rising, and ready to reimagine what’s possible.
4:00 – 5:00 PM | Farewell Reception
5:00 PM — | Dinner-On-Your-Own (Optional Dinner Groups for Guests Staying Overnight)
About the Presenters
Jason Craige Harris is a strategist, facilitator, mediator, and coach who partners with leaders and organizations to build cultures rooted in dignity and driven by impact. Drawing on insights from multiple fields, he helps teams develop trust, pursue ambitious goals, and design structures that work. A recognized expert in ethical leadership, restorative practices, conflict resolution, and dialogue across difference, Jason is also a writer, spiritual advisor, and sought-after speaker with Pollyanna, an organization building stronger and kinder communities. He harnesses the transformative power of storytelling to foster humility, curiosity, and compassion across sectors, contexts, and age groups. With a deep focus on preventing, analyzing, and repairing breakdowns in relationships and systems, Jason equips others with practical tools for navigating complexity and creating environments where everyone can thrive.
Martha Haakmat is an experienced educator who has spent her 39-year career teaching and leading in NYC independent schools. She brings a depth of understanding and perspective to her work, having held various faculty and leadership positions in a wide variety of school communities. Coming from her most recent service as a head of school, Martha worked specifically on enrollment, marketing and finance in a changing admissions landscape, and she developed strategic planning expertise, which included diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) goal setting and ongoing systemic work. She has gathered and created tools and strategies for weaving DEIB into policies, procedures and systems, as opposed to focusing on DEIB reactively. She is now the Executive Director of Haakmat Consulting LLC providing leadership coaching and support for DEIB strategic planning for schools and other organizations. Martha currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) and The Brearley School. She is also a credentialed Montessori administrator.
We look forward to learning alongside you and your peers at this event.
Thank you to our sponsors
Cancellation Policy
Cancellations and transfer requests must be sent via email to info@aisne.org. Cancellations received up to 10 days before the start of the event will receive a 100% refund, less a $150 administrative fee. This fee covers the cost of our minimum commitments with our hotel partners; thank you for your understanding. Transfers of registrations from one person to another are permitted up to 3 business days before the start of the event.
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