ROOTS.
A Leadership Experience for Women of Color Serving as Deans, Associate Vice Presidents, Vice Presidents and strategy leads in Education
Women from the inaugural ROOTS cohort.
Leadership isn't just about what you do.
It's about what you carry
You’ve earned the degrees, completed the trainings, and moved through the roles. Yet you’re still proving yourself, taking on more, and thinking carefully about what you can say. Sometimes you can’t name what’s happening, so you start wondering whether it’s you.
What You'll Recieve
✓ Six monthly two-hour virtual group sessions.
✓ Monthly individual executive coaching with Dr. Griffith.
✓ A small cohort limited to six women of color
✓ Your Personal Leadership Strategy, put on paper and put into action.
✓ A community of women working through the responsibilities and decisions that come with senior leadership.
Who ROOTS Is For
This cohort is for women of color serving as Deans, AVP's, Vice Presidents, and system leaders in education.
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You may be working through a difficult situation, leading a change, considering another opportunity, or questioning what you're willing to keep accepting.
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You bring your experience and judgment. ROOTS gives you coaching and other women to think with as you work through what comes next.
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What Participants Say
Samantha Hernandez
As a Latina and first-generation professional, I spent much of my career feeling like I couldn't find other leaders who truly understood my experience, the pressure, the balancing act of it all. ROOTS changed that.
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It gave me a space to see myself in other women, connect with leaders who get it, and be reminded that I can keep growing and reaching for more without losing who I am in the process
Dr. Kevina Brown
In just a few sessions, my mindset shifted. I no longer felt isolated in what I was experiencing as a Black woman professional. I felt heard. I felt seen.
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Sharing experiences with women who understood what I was navigating helped me see my strengths differently and gave me the confidence to pursue more for myself.
What Happens in ROOTS?
Every month, you bring something real: a situation, a question, a decision you need to make.
In your individual coaching sessions and in the group, I’ll ask questions that help you examine what’s happening, what you know, what you’re still trying to understand, and what you want. I’ll share what I’m noticing and, when it’s useful, offer perspective from my own leadership experience as you consider your options and decide your approach.
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The women in your cohort are Deans, AVPs, Vice Presidents, and strategy leads in education. They bring their experience, and you bring yours. You may hear another woman describe something you’ve experienced but haven’t had the words to explain.
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You’ll put your approach into action and come back to talk through what happened. What worked? What needs to change? What will you do next?
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Every participant is expected to keep other women’s stories and identifying details confidential.
Your Personal Leadership Strategy
You lead strategy for your institution. This one’s for you.
You’re accountable for results, but you don’t control every decision, relationship, or resource it takes to get there. How do you move the work forward when people have different priorities, the support isn’t there, or the expectations keep changing?
We’ll work through the situations you’re facing: what’s happening, what you can change, whose support matters, and how to approach the decisions and conversations ahead.
Put it on paper:
What you want to accomplish. Where to push. Who to bring in.
What has to change. What you’ll stop accepting. The actions you’ll take.
Over six months, in the group and your 1:1 coaching, you’ll put your Personal Leadership Strategy in writing. You’ll put it to work, examine what happens, and adjust it as you go.
Program Details.
Join the January 2027 Cohort
January 2027 - June 2027
Monthly two-hour virtual group sessions
Monthly individual coaching with Dr. Griffith
Your Personal Leadership Strategy
Limited to six women of color
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Apply for the January 2027 Cohort
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Questions?
Investment: $2,000
Payment plans available. Institutional professional development funding is welcome. Invoices and supporting documentation available on request.
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Led by Dr. Debra Y. Griffith.
Hi, I'm Debra Griffith, Ed.D.
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For more than 28 years, I've led in education across 6–12 schools, community colleges, and universities as an Associate Vice President, a Dean, a Vice President, and Chief Equity Programs Officer.
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As a Black woman who has often been the first or only one in the room, I know what it means to carry competing expectations, hold a lot of responsibility, and move important work forward inside systems that weren't built with you in mind.
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For a long time, I didn’t have the language to name some of what I was experiencing. I kept looking at myself, wondering what I needed to do better or differently. I wasn’t hearing other women talk about these experiences, so I didn’t realize how much of what I was taking personally was something we were facing in common.
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I created ROOTS from that experience, and from years of walking alongside other women of color leaders living the same realities. Women need a place to step back, be honest about what they're carrying, and learn from other women who get it.
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What I wish I had back then is what I give now.
Questions About ROOTS?
Choosing the right leadership experience matters.
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If you have questions about ROOTS, whether it's the right fit for you or how to use professional development funding from your institution, I'd be happy to connect.
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