Leadership Educators Symposium

2025 SYMPOSIUM THEME: RECLAIMING AND REIMAGINING COMMUNITY

December 8-10, 2025 at the University of Tampa

We will begin this year’s Symposium by reconnecting with the notion of liberation; what is liberation, who we are in the work toward liberation, and how does liberation connect to leadership learning and development? We will then dive more deeply into the question, “How do we do this?” or, ways to incorporate liberatory practice into our work as leadership educators. Symposium 2025 invites us to consider the role of leadership education in creating, reclaiming, and reimagining community, particularly when communities are being displaced and dismantled. This includes:

• Challenging dominant narratives in leadership education to critically examine messages of what leadership is and who it is for
• Examining the role of community in liberatory learning and leadership
• Exploring how community building can be a process for reclaiming agency
• Reimagining community across lines of difference, disciplines, and institutional structures
• Discovering the power of kinship and solidarity as liberatory practices in leadership

By the end of the 2025 Symposium, we hope to all have gained:

• Deeper understanding and confidence in utilizing liberatory approaches
• Strategies for incorporating liberatory practices into your curriculum and program planning
• Relationships with colleagues who value liberatory learning in leadership education
• Ideas for new collaborations and partnerships on your campus and/or across institutions

REGISTRATION

Regular registration will be $525. Registration cost includes programming, lunch on both program days, and one Symposium community dinner. Breakfast is included in the hotel rate.

ACCOMMODATIONS

We have arranged a block of rooms for Symposium participants at the Hyatt Place Tampa Downtown for $189+tax per night. A link to book will be provided during the Symposium registration process.

CANCELATION POLICY

We know plans can change, and we want to work with you! If you need to cancel your registration, please let us know in writing at kristen@leadershape.org by November 8, 2025 to receive a full refund, minus a $75 administrative fee.

If you cancel after November 8^th,  we’re not able to offer a refund, but you’re welcome to send a colleague in your place at no additional charge. Just email us their name and contact information by November 25, 2025.

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