05/15/2026
UpLiFT was IN the building this week — and we came back CHANGED.
Our Executive Director just returned from the LEE 2026 Courageous Leadership Conference and we have to share what this week meant — not just for our leader, but for the UpLiFT Movement and every community we serve. 💙
This is what poured into us so we can continue pouring into YOU:
🧠 The Inner Work is REAL
We learned about the 10 Saboteurs — those inner voices that quietly undermine our best efforts as leaders and organizations. And we learned how to activate the higher Sage within to confront them. UpLiFT has always believed that strong communities start with strong, whole leaders. This week confirmed it.
📋 Self-Care is a Leadership Strategy
Our ED built a personal Self-Care Menu — and is committed to using it. Even got that long overdue massage. 😌 We cannot build thriving communities if the builders are running on empty. Rest is resistance. Rest is strategy. Rest is necessary.
💡 Our new guiding word:
“The blessing of something being destroyed falls into the eyes and imagination of the Builder.”
UpLiFT — WE are Builders. In every school, every community, every boardroom where our work shows up — we BUILD. 🏗️
🏛️ Honoring the Continuum
Touring the Civil Rights Museum was a powerful reminder that the equity work UpLiFT does every day is part of a long, sacred, ongoing movement. We stand on mighty shoulders. We don’t take that lightly.
🔥 Inspired by Leaders Who Show Up FULLY
Shoutout to Dr. Penny Lee Schwinn, Shabbat Jeffries, and Aneesh Sohoni for showing up as their complete, authentic selves on that stage. That’s the standard we hold ourselves to at UpLiFT. No shrinking. No performing. Just purpose. 💪🏽
🐾 Community Found Us
From Xavier University of Louisiana HBCU alumni to fellow Penn State graduates — the connections made this week were not coincidental. They were purposed. Our people find our people. Every time.
👑 THIS is Why UpLiFT Exists
The most powerful moment of the entire week? Being surrounded by people of color serving on school boards across this country — showing up fiercely for children who look like ours. A very special shoutout to Erica Valliant of Saint Paul Public Schools, Minnesota — We see you.
The UpLiFT Movement is heading into the next season renewed, recharged, and more committed than ever to the communities we serve.
To everyone who poured into our leader this week — thank you. That investment comes right back to our kids, our families, and our communities. 💙✊🏽
Drop a 🙌🏽 if you believe our communities deserve whole, courageous, joy-filled leaders!
