As an international school leader, particularly in the current landscape where challenges related to division, disagreement and disconnection are a daily reality, you are called not just to cultivate cultures of belonging—but to embody belonging and lead it from the inside out.

Introducing …

Leading Belonging from Within

A Reflective Communal Experience for Women in International School Leadership

Leading Belonging from Within is a reflective communal experience designed specifically for women in international school leadership who want to build a deeper sense of personal belonging as the foundation for creating inclusive, connected school communities.

This is not a traditional training. It’s a guided experience where a small cohort of leaders comes together (via Zoom, once a month over 10 months) to explore identity, vulnerability, and the inner dimensions of leadership in the context of international school leadership. This is a quest to deeply understand the tenets of belonging from the inside out.

Participants will:

  • Explore their own experiences of belonging and exclusion, including in transient, multicultural settings.

  • Connect personal reflection to professional action, learning how self-awareness fuels systemic change.

  • Develop practical strategies for cultivating a sense of belonging for themselves, so that they can do so more effectively for students, staff, and school culture.

  • Build deep relationships with a trusted cohort of peers, creating space for shared insight, honest dialogue, and mutual support.

In international schools, where cultures, identities, and transitions intersect daily, the ability to lead from a place of rootedness and empathy is a game-changer. This experience helps leaders do just that—by first turning inward.

Because the journey to belonging—for our schools—begins with us.

PARTICULARS

LBW is envisioned as a 10-month program lasting from September 2025 – June 2026.

We’ll meet the first Thursday of each month at 1 pm CEST (7 am New York time, 7 pm Beijing time). Each session will last 75 minutes.

As a participant, you will:

🤝 Bond with the group through personal and shared reflection on the topic of belonging
📋 Assess your belonging needs with research-validated tools
📚 Explore empirical research on belonging
🎯 Identify a personal focus for action research
🤝 Partner up to design and test small belonging experiments
📈 Track progress through repeated surveys
💡 Share insights with the group to deepen collective learning

We are piloting this initiative, so your participation is an act of co-creation, allowing for group prototyping and program shaping. The price – free! – reflects this. Still, we ask for your full commitment to a once-a-month meetup.

Register your interest in joining this pilot LBW group by Friday, August 22 to save your spot.

Meet your LBW Facilitators

  • Dr. Amanda Sunderman is the Director of the American International School of Vilnius, with extensive international leadership and teaching experience in Brazil, Egypt, Lithuania, Nepal, Taiwan, Turkey, and the U.S. Her doctoral research explored the impact of informal mentoring on belonging and well-being with adolescents and adults. She is passionate about creating inclusive environments where all individuals feel seen, supported, and connected.

  • Rachael Thrash is an educational leader, writer, and consultant with more than two decades of experience in U.S. and international schools. Most recently, she served in senior leadership at the International School of Helsinki developing inclusive systems that empowered both student and educator voice. Her professional career has focused on building school cultures rooted in belonging, purpose, and shared leadership. She is the co-founder of Belong Hub and the author of the forthcoming Lead Together: Empowering Student Voice to Co-Create School Culture (Routledge, 2026).

  • Bridget McNamer is the founder and Chief Navigation Officer for Sidecar Counsel, which aims to bring more women into leadership roles in international schools, enhance their leadership capacities once there, and cultivate an environment where women in these schools – and thereby all members of the school community – can thrive.