NAFSCE and CRL - Center for RelationaLearning

2026 Relational Leadership Intensives

Co-sponsored by CRL and NAFSCE

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Join Us in Santa Fe, New Mexico!!!
Relational Leadership Intensives 2026

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 the Center for RelationaLearning in Santa Fe, New Mexico for a three-day retreat and immersive experience.

The Intensive will develop your capacity to activate knowledge, skills, and practices that are the foundation of relational leadership, specifically focused on building mutually trusting relationships among families, educators and communities. Santa Fe offers a unique multicultural environment where participants will experience authentic 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.

A Relational Leadership Intensive if for Leaders who Believe

Developing trusting relationships among schools, their families and the members of the wider community is the number one priority for school leaders.
Engaging families and their communities is a process of ongoing discovery and dialogue, rather than an activity that leaders can check off on a list.
All children will learn better and will learn more when the school, family, and the wider community find ways to work together, thereby bringing the strengths, experience, and resources of all to the educational process.
Schools will be more successful with their families and communities, not despite them.

Participants can expect to:

Understand the transformative principles of our Relationship-First approach in family & community engagement, teaching, leading and living.
Increase the quality of your connections and relationships with students, parents, colleagues and the wider community.
Implement new knowledge and wisdom gained to become a more present and co-creative leader.
Identify and utilize new practices and tools to increase your impact through building trusting relationships.
Identify ways to improve the quality of your relationships, both personally and professionally.

Intensive Details:

DATES:

Monday, June 22, 2026 – Thursday, June 25, 2026
Monday, August 24 – Thursday, August 27, 2026
COST: $1900.00. This includes continental breakfast, lunch, and snacks on the three full days of the Intensive. Participants are responsible for their own dinners.
ACCOMMODATIONS: The Hotel Santa Fe. Special Intensive rates are $239/night (June) plus tax and $219/night (August). These rates are available three days before and after the Intensive. Please contact the hotel for reservations. Inform the hotel that you are registering for the Relational Leadership Institute and the month you are attending. This will be taken care of during the reservation.
BASIC LOGISTICS: Opening Session will begin on the evening of the first day. Appreciative Closing Session will be on the evening of the last day. The June and August Intensive will begin Monday evening and the Appreciative Closing Session will be on Thursday evening.
TRAVEL/TRANSPORTATION: Participants are responsible for their own travel to and from Santa Fe. Both Albuquerque and Santa Fe are served by major airlines. Shuttles are available from Albuquerque to Santa Fe with Groome Transportation (60 min. drive). To make a reservation, visit groometransportation.com.
Intensive participants will receive Relational Leadership Certification, Level I, and a one-year NAFSCE membership.

Registration Details:

TO REGISTER FOR EACH INTENSIVE, CLICK THE BUTTONS BELOW OR AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE

Once registered, the Center for RelationaLearning will send a confirmation email and an invoice for payment. Please reach out directly to the contact below if you need more infomation or documentation.

Contact the Center for More Info:

1 (505) 231-2415

lisaotero.crlnm@gmail.com

“If you have the chance to attend this workshop, I would highly recommend it. It’s such a tremendous investment. If you can attend with your team, even better!!! They helped me grow professionally and personally.”

– Matthew Chavez, Texas Region 16 PFE, Education Specialist.

“I am a different leader and person because of the learning that has been facilitated by the Center for RelationaLearning…

…Our group from across the country became a community that continues to support each others’ growth and learning over a year later. Everyone who attended the Intensive has applied the mindsets, skills and tools in their own context and seen significant impact”

– Angela Brigham, Michigan MiFAMILY Region IV Coordinator.

“Attending the Relational Leadership Intensive this past November 2025 in Santa Fe was one of the most transformative professional learning experiences I’ve ever had. I arrived expecting to gain skills, but what I actually left with was a shift in mindset, one that continues to shape the way I relate, lead, and learn”

– Edvin Hernandez, Family Engagement Specialist, Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland.

“Relationaships have always been naturally important to me. The Relationships-First Approach and RelationaLeadership has given me permission to place relationships first and invest in something I care deeply about. It has given me tools and practices to intentionally connect.”

– Corinne Mowat, Padthaway Primary School Principal, South Australia

NAFSCE Announces Partnership with CRL

Relational Leadership Intensive Flyer Santa Fe, New Mexico