Design + Consulting

 

We are passionate about working with schools and education organizations to design and lead professional development experiences that support their missions.

 

Leadership Retreat for Your Team

We design and lead customized, transformational retreats that nurture the capacity of your team to work from the powerful intersection of inspiration and productivity. We collaborate with you well in advance of the retreat – often having one-to-one conversations with each team member – to enable the design of a unique experience that beautifully meets your organizational needs. Retreats can include everything from culture tending to strategic mapping, from critical conversations to play and joy.

  • All retreats offer an aesthetic, embodied experience with careful attention to setting the stage, creating beautiful materials, and nurturing the well-being of each participant. Whether you’re looking for small shifts in how you work together or a deep dive into big work, whether you have one day to devote or a whole week, we welcome the opportunity to work creatively with you to design a deeply meaningful experience for your team.

    • Build a trusting and productive team culture

    • Deepen your shared learning and growth while making space for play, inspiration, and movement

    • Accomplish big work that can’t be done in a typical work day

    • Convene in your area or travel to New Mexico

    • Leave with a shared vision and a map for your team’s essential work, rituals + practices to support your collective endeavors, and a renewed sense of possibility and connection

    • Receive follow-up check-ins as well as ongoing support as desired

 
 

Build a Powerful Professional Development Program and Culture at Your School

A powerful professional development program is far less dependent on budget than it is on a vibrant, collegial culture in which educators are supported and inspired. Whether your professional development program is skeletal, fledgling, or in need of a redesign, we would love to work with you. Professional development program design can range from a one-time consultation to a year-long process of working with you and your team to build a program from the ground up. Regardless of scale, our emphasis is on supporting and guiding the creation of a vibrant, joyful, and meaningful professional development program that aligns with your strategic goals, supports your organizational mission and culture, works with your budget, and can be sustained and expanded by you and your team long after our collaboration.

    • Build a vibrant professional culture in which teachers feel connected, empowered, and inspired

    • Create space for shared expertise and local knowledge

    • Sustain your experienced faculty while supporting new teachers

    • Articulate and assess the connection between your professional development program and student learning

 
Group of educators talking about culture building
 
Sofia Center Sheryl Chard holding a sign that says "I'm an educator because I believe education has the power to transform."
 

One-to-One Consulting for School Leaders

Sofia Center Director Sheryl Chard spent 15 years as a middle school division head prior to founding the Sofia Center in 2013. She understands the complexities, joys, and challenges of balancing the wild and wide-ranging work that constitutes daily life for school leaders. She also knows how critical it is to have someone beyond the organization who can be a supportive, guiding, and trusted thought partner on the journey.

  • One-to-one consultancies begin with a one-hour conversation at no charge to determine if we’re able to offer what you need. From there, we can design a flexible plan that combines listening, guidance, design partnering, and wholehearted presence to support your inspired leadership.

    • Articulate where you need a thought partner, guidance, or inspiration

    • Work through a specific challenge or navigate the qualitative, nuanced aspects of leading well

    • Tend and grow your capacity to lead from a centered, grounded place

    • Leave each session with a specific action item or practice to support your daily work

Examples of Our Work

 
 

Professional Development We’ve Designed & Led

  • Over 70 REFLECT : INNOVATE : ACT Sessions

  • Over 50 professional development days and retreats for Bosque School faculty, staff, and leadership team

  • Retreat for Georgetown Day School Leadership Team, Washington D.C.

  • Retreat for Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) Family Engagement Team, Albuquerque

  • Reflective Practice Workshop for all APS Instructional Coaches, Albuquerque

  • Reclaiming Wonder: A Workshop with APS Math Teachers, Albuquerque

  • What’s Your Superpower?: A Workshop with APS Math Teachers, Albuquerque

  • The Teacher as Leader, Co-Leader with Carla Silver & Gary Gruber, Santa Fe Leadership Center, now Leadership + Design, Santa Fe

  • Golden Apple Fellows Retreat, Golden Apple Foundation of New Mexico, Albuquerque

  • The Who of Leadership, Teach for America Corps Members Workshop, Albuquerque

Conference Presentations & Talks

  • Tend the Rituals of the Schoolhouse, NAIS Annual Conference, Philadelphia

  • Educators as Artists, Artists as Educators, New Mexico Music Educators Association All State Music Conference, Albuquerque

  • Wild Leadership: Tending Rituals, Setting the Stage, Embodying Play, NAIS Annual Conference, Atlanta

  • Fueling Change through Partnership: Models for Developing Budget-Conscious Equity and Inclusivity Programming for Students and Faculty, Progressive Education Network, Boston

  • Re-Think/Re-Design Professional Development, SXSW Edu Conference, Austin

  • REFLECT : INNOVATE : ACT — A Professional Development Collaborative: Private Schools with Public Purpose Conference, Cleveland

  • No More Bad Coffee: Professional Development that Honors Teachers, TEDx Education, Albuquerque

  • Taking Care of the Caretakers: Professional Development that Inspires and Renews, ACE Conference, Albuquerque