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Honored to Return to Georgetown International Academy
I am honored to return to Georgetown International Academy in Guyana to continue our work in deepening belonging and fostering a culture of dignity and respect.
During this fourth visit, I facilitated focus groups with students, staff, and parents to follow up on key themes from our October sessions, ensuring that insights translate into meaningful action.
We also continued professional development with academic and operations staff, exploring unconscious bias and concrete interpersonal strategies to strengthen belonging among employees—while grounding ourselves in honoring and respecting Guyanese culture within an international school setting. Many thanks to the Belonging Committee for their feedback and insights to inform the session design and case study that we processed.
Parents are an integral component of fostering belonging, so we were delighted that over 40 parents attended our session to learn more about intercultural competency in the context of an international school, and specific parent strategies to foster empathy and respect with their children.
I am grateful for the ongoing collaboration and looking forward to our continued work together. A special thanks to Shauna Hobbs-Beckley, EdS for her leadership and partnership.
International School of Panama
During this third visit to The International School of Panama (ISP) this academic year, I facilitated assemblies with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders to explore identity-based harm and the impact of jokes, informed by student focus groups in December; engaged with operations staff to gather feedback on belonging policies; met with the PTA Executive Committee with Rosalind Wiseman; and continued strategic work with the Community and Belonging Task Force.
Additionally, a group of academic and operations leaders participated in a meaningful and instructive session processing the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), fostering deeper conversations about intercultural competency.
I look forward to returning later this spring to build on these insights and further our shared commitment to fostering a culture of dignity and respect.
Looking forward to EduLead 2025
I can’t wait to return to Taipei American School later this spring!
Great to Be Home
It is great to be home after working with so many incredible schools around the world. I am back just in time to freeze in Chicago.
Video: Dr. Gay and Rosalind Wiseman at International School of Panama
I am honored to have partnered with International School of Panama for over two years, deepening belonging and fostering a culture grounded in dignity and respect.
I am also grateful for the visionary leadership of head of school, Audrey C. Menard, Ed.D. and excited to collaborate with Rosalind Wiseman in this important work.
Thrilled to Announce an Upcoming AISH Summer Workshop!
I am excited to co-facilitate a dynamic workshop with the insightful Homa Sabet Tavangar, sponsored by AISH - Academy for International School Heads, designed to empower international school leaders to navigate complexity, lead with courage, and foster truly inclusive communities.
A heartfelt thanks to Sheena Nabholz and Jeff Paulson for their leadership and partnership in advancing this critical work and building capacity for leaders to create school cultures grounded in dignity and respect.
DEIB Executive Leadership Cohort # 3: Asia
Today marked our third session of the DEIB Executive Leadership Cohort #3, building on the momentum of an incredibly productive onsite in Bangkok a few weeks ago.
In this session, participants shared their IDI observations from their respective schools; explored practical applications of the Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion text; engaged with a case study designed to deepen strategies for supporting students with autism and other forms of neurodivergence; and evaluated practices and policies that foster belonging, including the use of inclusive people-first language.
A particularly instructive component of the session was learning from Dr. Ryan Persaud and Sapphira Beaudin, who modeled how they operationalized cohort learnings to facilitate an all-staff session at VERSO International School. Their work exemplified inclusive leadership-- the integration of belonging, intercultural competency, and the contextualized definition of diversity within their school community.
Grateful for the thoughtful contributions and energy of this group. I look forward to our continued efforts in January!
Blue Skies Leadership Podcast
International educators, I am excited to share my conversation with Daniel Mendes and Dan Kerr on the Blue Skies Leadership Podcast!
Recorded after my two-day consultation at Saigon South International School, this podcast dives into critical distinctions between diversity, inclusion, and belonging, reframing these concepts to embrace shared humanity while addressing dignity infractions such that all are able to thrive and flourish.
The episode also highlights the role of families in nurturing intercultural competency and offers practical strategies for fostering truly inclusive school environments.
Join us as we explore strategies to foster inclusive schools where everyone feels safe, valued, and respected.
You may access the podcast below, on Spotify, or on Apple Podcasts.
DEIB Executive Leadership Cohort #2: Latin America
We had another instructive session today with our LATAM educational leaders from international schools building capacity to foster more inclusive schools, grounded in dignity and respect.
Many international efforts to foster inclusive organizations fail because they use language, framings, and models from the United States, in ways that don't resonate locally and ultimately further exacerbate tensions in international communities.
Today, we began our discussion and application of Rohini Anand PhD's instructive text, "Leading Global Diversity Equity and Inclusion," to apply the Transversal Approach as an analytical framework to ensure that international school belonging efforts are local, meaningful, relevant, and proximate.
Afterwards, we reviewed a case study, informed by participant problems of practices, to collectively brainstorm effective approaches, linguistic framings, and strategies-- to mitigate and navigate the inevitable design and implementation challenges.
Many thanks to all participants for their thoughtful contributions. I look forward to our onsite in Panama in just a few weeks!