Celebrating Women in Leadership

Celebrating Women in Leadership

March 25-26, 2025

Holiday Inn - Kearney, NE

Registration will open in January 2026.

NCSA is proud to host the Celebrating Women in Leadership event. We invite you to join us—and encourage you to bring colleagues and staff—for a meaningful learning and networking experience designed to celebrate practicing and aspiring female leaders. Participants will engage with peers around shared problems of practice and gain insight from the experiences of accomplished women leaders.

Wednesday, March 25

1:45 p.m. - Check-in/Registration

2:30 - 5:00 p.m.- Stretch Capacity: Building Sustainable High Performance without Snapping with Michelle McCullough

Today’s school leaders juggle endless demands, competing priorities, and constant change. This inspiring workshop helps you find your stretch zone—where growth happens without tipping into overload. Discover practical, energizing strategies to sustain your focus, renew your resilience, and lead with steadiness through uncertainty. You’ll gain tools to reframe challenges, recover faster from setbacks, and build a culture where collaboration, innovation, and well-being drive high performance. Leave recharged and ready to lead with purpose, balance, and lasting impact.

Participants will be able to:

• Recognize and Manage Stretch Capacity
• Identify the difference between healthy stretch (growth zone) and overload (snap zone).
• Apply practical strategies to sustain personal energy and avoid burnout while managing competing priorities in education leadership.
• Strengthen Resilience for Long-Term Leadership & Performance
• Understand resilience as a renewable skill that can be built through intentional practices.
• Gain tools to reframe challenges, recover quickly from setbacks, and lead with steadiness in uncertain times.
• Create a Culture of Team Building & Problem SolvingExplore research-backed methods to cultivate collaboration, innovation, and problem-solving within school teams.
• Learn how to model resilience and adaptability so staff feel supported, motivated, and empowered to deliver their best work.
• Create a school culture where high performance is achieved without sacrificing mental health, morale, or long-term capacity.

6:00 p.m. - Networking Reception

Thursday, March 26

8:00 a.m. - Continental Breakfast

8:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. - The Good Energy ClubTM: The Surprising Way to Motivate, Connect, and Lead with Lightness with Sarah Collins

Let's face it - the worlds feels heavy.  Burnout, disconnection, and low morale are showing up everywhere, from conference rooms to living rooms.  We have more technology desinged to connect us than ever before - and yet people feel more distracted, drained, and divided than they've ever been. So how do we bring back the spark? How do we create teams, workplaces, and communities where people actually want to show up - with energy, connection, and lightness? In The Good Energy ClubTM, speaker and leadership coach Sarah Collins shows audiences that good energy isn't a mood or a personality trait - it's a practice. Drawing from her experience of growing up on her own, having three kids in two years, and coaching countless leaders and teams, Sarah shares four simple, research-backed practices that reignite engagement and help people feel better, connect deeper, and lead stronger.

Participants will know:

• How small habits protect your energy and help you "do the next right thing."
• Why fun isn't fluff - it's fuel (and how play drives performance).
• How to reclaim presence in a world of constant distraction.
• Why connection is the most renewable energy source we have.

10:00 a.m. - Break

10:15 a.m. - Panel Discussion Featuring Women Educational Leaders

This panel discussion features women educational leaders sharing diverse perspectives and real-world leadership experiences. 

11:30 a.m. - Event Concludes

About our Keynote Speakers

Michelle McCullough blends research-backed expertise with energizing, practical strategies to help leaders tackle today’s most urgent workplace challenges—from communication breakdowns and lack of trust to employee retention struggles. A seasoned keynote speaker, Certified Speaking Professional (CSP®), and engaging emcee, Michelle has delivered over 400 presentations for organizations like Goldman Sachs, the Air Force Reserve, and Ancestry.com. As a Future of Work researcher, she’s led national studies including the 2025 Leadership and Engagement Report and the U.S. Happiness Report, revealing the hidden behavioral influences that drive performance, engagement, and retention. Michelle is the bestselling author of four books, including The Make It Happen Blueprint and The HappyIST and serves on the Board of Directors for Stampin’ Up! As CEO of DreamBoard Media, she leads her own team using the same leadership and emotional intelligence strategies she shares worldwide. Featured over 250 times in outlets like Entrepreneur.com, Fox, ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates, Michelle answers the critical questions executives are asking—delivering actionable insights with her signature energy, engaging storytelling, and data-driven approach. Above all, she’s passionate about helping teams stretch, innovate, and enjoy success together.

Sarah Collins 

Have you ever looked around and thought, "Everyone's exhausted, including me?" Sarah Collins has. As a mom of three, a business owner, and a coach to countless leaders, she's seen how burnout creeps in quietly until the spark that once fueled you starts to fade. Somewhere along the way, she realized that burnout doesn't happen because we care too much; it happens because we forget to fill ourselves back up. That realization sparked The Good Energy Club, a movement to help people lead with lightness and live with more connection, fun, and flow. Through real-life stories, positive psychology, and strengths-based strategies, Sarah helps audiences rebuild that spark from the inside out so they can feel better, connect deeper, and lead stronger. 

10:00 a.m. - Break

10:15 a.m. - Panel Discussion Featuring Women Educational Leaders

This panel discussion features women educational leaders sharing diverse perspectives and real-world leadership experiences. 

11:30 a.m. - Event Concludes

Lodging

Holiday Inn, Kearney, NE
Call 308-237-5971
Mention: Women in Leadership
$154.95 + tax