Strategic Communications Sample: Allston-Brighton Community and School Leadership Institute

Boston, MA

May 2025

As part of the Center for Collaborative Education's Reciprocity Project, I helped design and launch the Allston-Brighton Community and School Leadership Institute, a quarterly stakeholder convening created to bring educators, community organizations, families, youth advocates, and institutional partners together to co-design educational improvement strategies. The institute served as a collaborative planning and engagement structure supporting the development of a long-term community and school roadmap. My role included participant communications, event planning, facilitation support, workbook development, stakeholder engagement, documentation, feedback collection, and post-event follow-up.

Community strategist | Systems designer | Cross-sector convener | Operational lead | Evaluation lead

*Strategic Communications *Stakeholder Engagement *Cross-Sector Facilitation *Community Coalition Building *Workshop & Learning Design *Systems & Process Design *Executive & Participant Communications *Project & Event Management *Knowledge Management & Documentation *Evaluation & Continuous Improvement

*Launched a structured leadership institute bringing together educators, nonprofits, higher education partners, community leaders, and residents around a shared educational vision. *Designed participant materials and facilitation tools supporting collaborative roadmap development across PreK-6, grades 7-9, grades 10-12, postsecondary, and lifelong learning pathways. *Facilitated stakeholder-driven discussions that generated actionable recommendations related to literacy, wellness, workforce development, digital literacy, career pathways, mentorship, and postsecondary success. *Developed communication and engagement systems including invitations, reminders, participant directories, surveys, resource sharing, and follow-up outreach. *Collected and analyzed participant feedback to inform future convenings and strengthen stakeholder participation.

Participant feedback indicated strong engagement and readiness for continued collaboration: *100% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the content was relevant to their role. *100% agreed or strongly agreed that facilitators encouraged active participation. *More than 85% reported feeling prepared to actively participate in future sessions. *Participants expressed interest in sharing resources, joining working groups, becoming collaborators, and supporting future sessions.

The Leadership Institute transformed a broad community engagement effort into a structured collaborative design process. By creating opportunities for schools, community organizations, families, and institutional partners to work together around shared goals, the institute helped establish the conditions for long-term community-driven educational improvement.

The Leadership Institute reinforced a lesson I'd first learned while designing teacher experiences at BackStory: the event itself isn't the product. The relationships and systems that continue after participants leave the room are where lasting change happens. That's why I designed every communication, artifact, and feedback loop to move participants from attendees to collaborators.