The PFE Initiative is offering a special training for the school counselor network and Title I, Part A PFE staff.
The Relational Leadership Intensive is designed to transform the quality of leading and learning by placing relationships first within organizations, communities, and classrooms. To create a connected community of learners, participants will travel to Region 16 Education Service Center in beautiful Amarillo, TX for a three-day immersive experience.
The Intensive will develop the capacity to activate knowledge, skills, and practices that are the foundation of relational leadership, specifically focused on building mutually trusting relationships between families, educators and communities. Santa Fe offers a unique multicultural environment where participants will experience various cultural and community approaches to relational leadership in education. There will be opportunities to abandon stressful patterns of interaction with self and others and adopt relational ways of learning in both professional and personal lives. The group will develop and apply six natural ways of learning through play, games, story, dialogue, art, and ceremony.
Relational Leadership Intensive
Event Venue & Hotel
101 West Road to Six Flags St
Arlington, TX 76011
Hosted at the Drury Plaza Hotel Dallas Arlington.
Room Rate $159 Special Rate.
Book before April 20, 2026.
About the Speakers
Dr. George Otero
Born and raised in New Mexico, USA, Dr. George Otero is well known as an international consultant, social entrepreneur and author. Otero has worked with a diverse body of clients throughout the USA, Australia, and the UK. He and his wife Susan operate the Center for RelationaLeadership™ and RelationaLearning™ based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
George has spent his career insisting that positive relationships are the key to effective education, learning and leadership. Relationships First is the result.
Relational leaders learn as they go. Learning specifically how relationships make the difference in learning and life came during his 20 years owning and operating a multicultural educational center in Taos, New Mexico. Over 65,000 individuals participated in experiential, boundary-crossing workshops where every aspect of learning and leading was explored.
He learned from thousands of conversations and social interactions that putting the relationship first in every aspect of personal and organizational life results in positive growth, joy, happiness, and success. These insights and practices apply to everyone. He discovered how play, games, story, dialog, art (music, dance, food), and ceremony were ways of relating that could empower participants of any age or stage to intentionally create the way they were relating.
More recently in his work with hundreds of organizations, schools and communities and thousands of individuals, he has been highly successful in helping individuals, teams and social systems put the relationships first in all they do; transforming sense of self, organizational culture and strengthening community. Learning how to be relational first has lead in every case to greater equity, inclusion, social justice, organizational and personal alignment.
His work is designed for each client and tailored to their specific relational needs.
Anne Henderson
Anne Henderson currently services as Vice Chair of National Association for Family, School and Community Engagement. Her specialty is the relationship between families and schools, and its impact on students’ success in school and through life. Since 1977, Anne has worked with organizations that represent or serve parents and community members. Her clients include the Tellin’ Stories Project in Washington, DC; the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence in Lexington, Kentucky; the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City; the Alexandria, Virginia Public Schools; the Parent Institute for Quality Education in Southern California; and the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region in Washington, DC. She has worked in Civil Rights and Anti-Poverty programs for the federal government and for the New Jersey Department of Education. She helped start the National Committee for Citizens in Education, a group that aimed to put the public back into the public schools. Since 1981, she has written a small library of books and materials about research and effective practice on how engaging families can improve student achievement, especially in diverse and low-income communities. Anne is a graduate of Oberlin College, and she received her Master’s Degree in politics from Eagleton Institute at Rutgers University.
Anne works with families, educators, community organizations, foundations, education agencies, and advocacy groups all over the world, to improve student learning by engaging families and community resources in education. Her focus is low-income families from diverse backgrounds, who are often blamed or written off when their children struggle in school. She is currently engaged in starting The National Association for Family, School and Community Engagement (NAFSCE), to advance high impact practices of family, school and community engagement to promote child development and improve student achievement.
Anne is the author of several books including: Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family/School Partnerships and Everyone Wins!: The Evidence for Family-School Partnerships and Implications for Practice.