Celebrating the Launch of The Bay Catalyst Fellowship

If you could design a leadership experience to support transformational leadership in Bay Area districts and schools, what would you prioritize in terms of the type of experience and content?

For the past year and a half, that’s the question we’ve been exploring and co-designing around in partnership with the Cambiar Catalyst team, thought leaders from across the country, and, most importantly, district leaders from across the Bay Area.

Last week, the first cohort of the Bay Catalyst Fellowship convened for the first time in Half Moon Bay.? It was yet another powerful reminder of what happens when we create space and place for incredible, mission- and values-aligned leaders to come together.?

The two-year Bay Catalyst Fellowship has four purposes:

• Empower Significant, Enduring Change: Fellows will master Cambiar’s CREATE Framework to tackle complex problems and drive systemic change effectively by including stakeholders in the design process to identify sustainable solutions.
• Foster Innovation in Service of Students: Fellows will collaborate with peers to design and implement innovative solutions that make a real difference and do so through a common lens and set of shared practices developed during the Fellowship experience.
• Cultivate Transformational Leaders: Fellows will accelerate personal and professional growth through personalized coaching and a tailored learning plan. Fellows will have the opportunity to strengthen their areas of expertise and be exposed to other aspects of systems leadership in order to gain a better understanding of all aspects of the work.
• Build a Community that Sustains All of the Above: Fellows will expand their network and gain insights from national experts and thought leaders while deepening relationships with colleagues and peers from their district and other similar districts in the Bay Area via social activities like dinners and other social activities in the evenings during learning experiences.

The Bay Catalyst Fellowship is a much-needed investment in Bay Area district leaders. It seeks to accelerate their development and impact, celebrate and honor their work, and create a community where they can reflect, recharge, and recommit to the incredible work they do every day.

We have two asks for your support for this new and exciting work:

1. If you are an experienced district or school leader interested in being a part of the Bay Catalyst Fellowship in the future, please reach out. If you know one, please connect us.
2. Please comment with your ideas on our essential question: If you could design a leadership experience to support transformational leadership in Bay Area districts and schools, what would you prioritize in terms of the type of experience and content?