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NSPRA Plus About NSPRA
Lead with Impact. Communicate with Purpose.
Public education leaders are navigating an era of elevated scrutiny, competing expectations, political tension, rapid misinformation, and increasing pressure on district decision-making. In this environment, communication cannot be treated as a downstream function. It is a core leadership responsibility.
Leadership for Public Trust is a joint AASA and NSPRA professional learning experience for superintendents, school communication leaders, and district leadership teams who must lead collaboratively during critical moments.
Grounded in three integrated learning tracks, Civic Leadership, Narrative Leadership, and Crisis Leadership, this experience enables district teams to strengthen public trust, align leadership, and communication, and lead with clarity, credibility, and care.
Communication at the Center of Leadership
Leadership for Public Trust brings together AASA’s national leadership in superintendent development and NSPRA’s expertise in strategic school communication to help district teams move beyond reactive communication toward a more intentional, aligned leadership practice.
This is not a traditional communications training. It is a leadership experience tailored to the current challenges district leaders face. The program features three integrated learning tracks. Register for the full series (all three tracks), one of the tracks or select individual sessions à la carte.
Civic Leadership
Navigating complexity, competing expectations and public trust
Civic Leadership helps district leaders understand and navigate the public, political and community contexts where education decisions are made. Participants learn to anticipate stakeholder responses, identify pressure points, align internally and make decisions grounded in student needs, community context and long-term public trust.
Narrative Leadership
Shaping understanding, alignment and momentum
Narrative Leadership focuses on how districts create a shared understanding of their identity, goals, purpose and the possibilities that success brings. Participants learn to identify dominant narratives, close gaps between intention and perception, align leadership language and use storytelling strategically to build trust and sustain momentum.
Crisis Leadership
Leading with clarity, credibility and care under pressure
Crisis Leadership prepares district teams to make decisions and communicate effectively during high-stakes situations. Participants examine how leadership roles, decision-making systems, tone, timing, message discipline, recovery and follow-through influence whether trust is preserved or eroded during and after a crisis.
The experience is most impactful when superintendents and communication leaders participate together (just one registration required).
Leadership for Public Trust helps district teams develop shared language, practical tools and stronger alignment for leading through civic complexity, narrative challenges and crisis pressure. Participants will strengthen their ability to:
✅ Navigate civic and community complexity with greater awareness and discipline.
✅ Incorporate communication awareness into leadership decision-making.
✅ Anticipate stakeholder responses and recognize potential pressure points.
✅ Identify and shape narratives influencing stakeholder understanding.
✅ Align leadership actions, internal messaging and external communication.
✅ Translate complex district priorities into clear and credible public understanding.
✅ Communicate with clarity, empathy, transparency and consistency during uncertainty.
✅ Move from crisis response to recovery in ways that preserve and rebuild trust.
✅ Strengthen the superintendent-communication leader partnership as a core driver of public trust.
Can't attend live? All sessions will be recorded and available for participants to watch on-demand for a flexible learning experience.
“Communication is not something that happens after a leadership decision is made. It is part of how strong leaders listen and lead their communities. Leadership for Public Trust brings superintendents and communication professionals to the table together, giving district teams practical strategies to anticipate the complexity of decisions, strengthen alignment across their systems and communicate with clarity when the stakes are high.” — Barbara M. Hunter, APR, CAE, executive director of NSPRA Registration Information
— Barbara M. Hunter, APR, CAE, executive director of NSPRA
Registration Information
Register for the full series (all three tracks), one of the tracks or select individual sessions à la carte.
The Leadership for Public Trust Virtual Series is designed to help district leadership teams strengthen their ability to lead through complexity, build and sustain public trust, and align communication with decision-making at the highest levels.
Each track includes three 90-minute virtual sessions. Each track stands on its own while also supporting a broader leadership model that enables districts of all sizes to navigate competing expectations, shape public understanding and lead with clarity when it matters most. Register for the full series (all three tracks), one of the tracks or select individual sessions à la carte.
Click the arrows below to learn more about each track.
Can't attend a session live? Each session will be recorded and available for participants to catch up on-demand for a flexible learning experience.
Navigating complexity, competing expectations, and public trust
As public education becomes increasingly shaped by political tension, competing community expectations, and heightened scrutiny, leadership teams must be equipped to navigate complexity while maintaining focus, alignment, and trust. This series explores how leaders incorporate communication awareness into decision-making so that actions are understood, supported, and grounded in community context.
Session 1: Leading in Complex Community Contexts
Thursday, March 4 | 12 - 1:30 p.m. ET
Superintendents are expected to lead in environments defined by competing values, public pressure, and rapidly shifting expectations. Strong leadership requires not only sound decisions, but an awareness of how those decisions will be experienced across the community.
This session focuses on how leadership teams can make stronger, more informed decisions by incorporating communication awareness early, considering how issues may be interpreted, where tensions may emerge, and how to align internally before decisions become public. The goal is not simply to manage reaction, but to lead in ways that build clarity, credibility, and public trust from the outset. This session moves beyond engagement and transparency as standalone practices and focuses on how leadership teams use community awareness to make more effective decisions in real time.
Key Focus Areas:
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Session 2: Leading with Trust in Complex Times
Thursday, April 1 | 12 - 1:30 p.m. ET
Trust is not built in moments of crisis, it is built through consistent leadership over time. High-functioning districts treat trust not as an outcome, but as a deliberate approach embedded in how decisions are made, communicated, and followed through.
Rather than focusing on how trust is built, this session examines how established trust allows leaders to move forward with clarity, even when decisions are difficult or unpopular. Participants will examine how leadership behavior and communication – formal and informal – either reinforce or erode trust when decisions are tested in real time.
Session 3: Engagement as Shared Leadership Work
Thursday, May 6 | 12 - 1:30 p.m. ET
Engagement is often treated as a communications task rather than a leadership responsibility. In practice, meaningful engagement strengthens decision-making, builds shared ownership, and reinforces public trust.
This session reframes engagement as part of how districts operate, ensuring that leadership decisions are informed by community perspective while maintaining clarity and momentum. Participants will explore how to design engagement approaches that move beyond one-way communication and support understanding and action. This session also focuses on how districts move from gathering input to using that input to shape direction, ensuring engagement informs decisions rather than existing alongside them.
Shaping understanding, alignment, and momentum
Building on the civic context leaders navigate, Narrative Leadership focuses on how districts create shared understanding in environments where perception often drives reality. The narratives surrounding a district influence how decisions are interpreted, how quickly initiatives gain traction, and how much trust exists before communication even begins.
This series explores how leadership teams create alignment between decisions, messaging, and lived experience so that stakeholders understand not just what is happening, but why it matters.
Session 1: Understanding and Owning the District Narrative
Monday, March 22 | 12 - 1:30 p.m. ET
Every district operates within a narrative, whether intentionally shaped or not. These narratives influence how leadership decisions are received and whether stakeholders interpret actions with trust or skepticism. This session moves beyond responding to misinformation and instead focuses on how leadership teams create the conditions where clear, consistent understanding reduces the need for correction.
This session also focuses on helping leadership teams understand how their district is currently perceived and where gaps may exist between intention and community understanding.
Session 2: Aligning Leadership, Messaging, and Direction
Monday, April 19 | 12 - 1:30 p.m. ET
Narrative breaks down when leadership actions, internal messaging, and public communication are not aligned. Inconsistent signals create confusion and weaken trust.
This session explores how leadership teams can build internal clarity first – ensuring that direction, language, and expectations are aligned before communicating externally. Rather than focusing on communication routines alone, this session also explores how alignment at the leadership level determines whether strategy is understood and sustained across the system.
Session 3: Using Story to Drive Understanding and Support
Monday, May 17 | 12 - 1:30 p.m. ET
Stories help make leadership priorities visible, but only when used intentionally. When aligned to district goals, stories can build understanding, reinforce direction, and sustain momentum over time.
This session focuses on how leadership teams can use real examples and experiences to make their work more tangible and meaningful for stakeholders. It positions the story not as a communication output, but as a leadership tool for reinforcing priorities, demonstrating progress, and maintaining alignment over time.
Leading with clarity, credibility, and trust under pressure
When civic pressure and narrative tension converge, leadership is tested in real time. Crisis does not create a leadership gap, it reveals them. Districts that have built clarity, alignment, and trust are better positioned to respond effectively and maintain credibility under pressure.
This series focuses on how leadership teams respond in high-stakes moments, ensuring that decisions and communication reinforce trust, even in uncertainty.
Session 1: Decision-Making and Leadership Under Pressure
Friday, April 30 | 12 - 1:30 p.m. ET
In moments of crisis, leadership teams must make high-stakes decisions quickly, often with incomplete information and intense scrutiny.
This session focuses on how leaders approach decision-making under pressure, balancing urgency, accuracy, and long-term impact while maintaining alignment across the organization. This session also emphasizes how leadership decisions – not just communication – shape outcomes during high-pressure situations.
Session 2: Communicating with Credibility in Uncertain Moments
Friday, May 28 | 12 - 1:30 p.m. ET
In a crisis, stakeholders are not only listening to what is said, they are evaluating how leadership shows up. This session focuses on how leaders communicate when information is incomplete and where credibility is shaped more by presence and consistency than by certainty.
This session also explores how leaders communicate with clarity, transparency, and consistency even when all answers are not yet known.
Session 3: Sustaining Trust Beyond the Crisis
Friday, June 25 | 12 - 1:30 p.m. ET
What happens after a crisis often determines whether trust is strengthened or eroded. Recovery requires continued clarity, consistency, and follow-through.
This session focuses on how leadership teams move forward by supporting their communities, reflecting on their approach, and strengthening systems for the future. This session also examines how districts use post-crisis moments to strengthen leadership systems, not just recover from the event itself.
Continue the Learning: Leadership for Public Trust Summit
October 2027
The virtual series is just the beginning. In October 2027, the Leadership for Public Trust Summit will bring superintendents, communication leaders and district teams together for an in-person experience focused on putting the Civic, Narrative and Crisis Leadership domains into practice.
Through interactive learning, real-world scenarios and team-based planning, participants will move from learning the concepts to building practical approaches they can take back to their districts.
More information about the Leadership for Public Trust Summit coming soon!
“Superintendents have always had to make hard decisions. What’s changed is the speed and scrutiny surrounding those decisions. Building trust with your community can’t begin when a difficult moment arrives. Leadership for Public Trust will assist and support superintendents and their teams as they build a stronger working partnership and be better prepared to lead when it matters most.” — David R. Schuler, AASA executive director
— David R. Schuler, AASA executive director
Rubén AurelioSuperintendent Vallejo City Unified School District (Calif.)
Celina BaguiaoChief Communications and Community Engagement Officer Vallejo City Unified School District (Calif.)
Grace Becker, APRDirector of Marketing & Customer Experience Eden Prairie Schools (Minn.)
Jennifer Perry Cheatham, Ed.D.Senior Lecturer on Education, Co-Chair, Public Education Leadership Project (PELP) Harvard University (Mass.)
Luis Correa, Ed.D.Superintendent Gurnee School District 56 (Ill.)
Laurie Dent, Ph.D.Superintendent Sumner-Bonney Lake School District (Wash.)
Ivan Duran, Ed.D.Superintendent Highline Public Schools (Wash.)
Celi Haga, APRChief of Staff and Executive Director of Strategic Communications Eastern Carver County Schools (Minn.)
Tori Holloway, Ph.D.Superintendent Vicksburg Warren School District (Miss.)
Delaina McCormack, APRSocial Media Manager Fairfax County Public Schools (Va.)
Claire MitzelDirector of Communications & Public Relations Roanoke City Public Schools (Va.)
Moira O'Neil, Ph.D. Senior Vice President of Programs FrameWorks Institute
Erin Rathke, Ed.D.Superintendent Eastern Carver County Schools (Minn.)
Josh Swanson, Ed.D.Superintendent Eden Prairie Schools (Minn.)
Dirk Tedmon, APRExecutive Director of Marketing & Communications Eden Prairie Schools (Minn.)
Tove Tupper, APRChief Communications Officer Highline Public Schools (Wash.)
Elle Warmuth, APRCommunications and Community Relations Director Sumner-Bonney Lake School District (Wash.)
Verletta White, Ed.D. Superintendent Roanoke City Public Schools (Va.)
Register for the full Leadership for Public Trust Virtual Series, choose one of the three tracks or select individual sessions à la carte. Whichever option you choose, your registration covers anyone from your district you would like to include.
Can't attend live? Sessions will be recorded and available to registered participants on demand.