AISNE 2025-26 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Practitioners Cohort

AISNE 2025-26 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Practitioners Cohort

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging goals are as vital as ever in our independent schools. Now is a time to move forward with energy, enthusiasm, and pride. In order to tap into the wellspring of professional innovation and leadership you bring to your role as a full-time practitioner, you need space for reflection, growth, and peer community. 

AISNE’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Practitioners Cohort is a yearlong program aimed at diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging leadership development in New England schools. Over a series of virtual and in-person meetings, you will discuss the current opportunities and challenges of the field, share your professional triumphs and tribulations, and receive leadership coaching aimed at creating enduring system change in your community.

You will learn alongside peers, led by acclaimed educational leader Martha Haakmat, who has worked with independent schools nationwide on comprehensive and systemic diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging action planning, leveled training, and assessment. Martha will lead your cohort through topic presentations, case studies, discussions, and peer problem-solving.

Your fellow learners will consist of Directors of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging and other similar roles from around the region. It will be a place to forge and fortify deep professional relationships, engage in generative conversations, find support and creative feedback for your ideas, and explore the current and future landscape of the profession.

Topics covered include:

  • Exploring best practices in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging leadership
  • Interpreting and using quantitative and qualitative data
  • Strategizing engagement and stakeholder relationships
  • Co-creating the growth of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in independent schools
  • Examining your leadership self-journey

This Cohort is an 8-part program. Martha will lead all of these sessions with rich presentations and learning resources. The sessions will also offer a space for peer networking and group support to build a powerfully connected regional group of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging leaders.

Invest in yourself and your community and reinvigorate your commitment to the values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging work.

Dates & Registration

The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Practitioners Cohort is an 8-part program, 5 sessions on Zoom, and 3 in-person. Your registration includes admission to all sessions, as well as access to learning materials and resources.

Cost: AISNE Member $599/pp
AISNE Non-Member $699
Cohort registration closes September 10.

Bundle and Save!
Save when you bundle registrations for the cohort with AISNE’s 2025 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Conference. Choose the “AISNE Bundle” ticket option when checking out. You will be registered for both events. 

Bundle ticket: $960/pp | Bundle tickets on sale through August 31 only.

Note: Bundled registrations do not qualify for group and early bird discounts for the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Conference.

2025-2026 Dates

  • Session 1 | Tuesday, 9/16, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM | Virtual
  • Session 2 | Tuesday, 10/21, 8:00 AM – 10:30 AM | In-Person, Sheraton Framingham, MA (Breakfast Included)
  • Session 3 | Tuesday, 11/18, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM | Virtual
  • Session 4 | Tuesday, 12/16, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM | Virtual
  • Session 5 | Tuesday, 1/27, 8:30 AM – 2:30 PM | In-Person, Wentworth by the Sea, New Castle, NH (Breakfast & Lunch Included)
  • Session 6 | Tuesday, 3/3, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM | Virtual
  • Session 7 | Tuesday, 4/7, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM | Virtual
  • Session 8 | Tuesday, 5/5, 12:30 PM – 3:30 PM | In-Person (Location TBD, Lunch Included),
    • Followed by a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Practitioner Peer-to-Peer Gathering

REGISTER HERE

About the Facilitator

Martha Haakmat is an experienced educator who has spent her 36-year career teaching and leading in New York City 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 goal setting and ongoing systemic work. She is now the Executive Director of Haakmat Consulting LLC, providing leadership coaching and support for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging strategic planning for schools and other organizations.

Martha is a former lower, middle and upper school educator, Diversity Director and Middle School Head. She was a faculty member for the NAIS Institute for New Heads, has served as an independent school trustee, and has been a member of various committees for the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS), the Independent School Admission Association of Greater New York (ISAAGNY) and New York City Guild of Independent School Heads. She was also the founder and director of Educators for Growth and Empowerment (EDGE), a diversity consulting team with regional and national recognition.

Martha currently serves on the Board of Trustees for NYSAIS, the Brearley School and Early Steps. She is also a lead presenter for the NAIS Institute for New Heads and is a credentialed Montessori administrator. Martha has led various programs for AISNE, including its Heads of Color leadership development cohort and workshops at AISNE’s annual Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Belonging Conference and Heads of School Retreat.

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 $100 administrative fee. Transfers of registrations from one person to another are permitted up to 3 business days before the start of the event, or the first event of a series of events.

Not an AISNE Member?

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Join today or renew your membership.