UCLA School of Education & Information Studies

UCLA Professional Leadership and Coaching Academy

This program focuses on empowering participants to take ownership of their learning journeys. Instead of a top-down approach that simply identifies problems and prescribes solutions, it emphasizes collaboration, responsive listening, and open dialogue.

Leaders in this program learn to create an inclusive environment where team members feel safe to express ideas, take risks, and reflect on their experiences. By cultivating curiosity and resilience, we explore participants’ strengths and areas for improvement together. Through experiential learning and coaching, leaders will learn how to help their teams to develop skills, think critically, and adapt to changing systems and environments. This approach not only enhances individual performance but also fosters a culture of learning, growth, and innovation within organizations.

Academic Information

Our Commitment

  • Equitable and relationship-centered coaching
  • Navigating growth and learning individually, collectively, and through systems
  • Brave and safe spaces are intentionally designed to encourage psychological safety, interpersonal trust, and diverse and divergent thinking and feeling

Our work is informed by the following themes:

  • Exploring identity through cultural mapping and intentional storytelling and how identity impacts all of our interactions
  • Developing interpersonal trust and psychological safety for diverse individuals in order to explore issues of equity, justice, and inclusion
  • Awareness of systems thinking and the impact of systems on individual and group 

Outcomes

Participants will complete the Professional Leadership and Coaching Academy with:

  • A refined coaching identity with developed consciousness in becoming a more effective leader to provide equitable and relationship-centered support based in systems thinking principles
  • A generative coaching plan based on the participant’s development in a coaching continuum that reflects each participant’s unique strengths and systems
  • A resource toolkit for personal and professional growth i.e. website, TedTalk, a guide to resources
  • Knowledge of and application for different adult learning theories, the neuroscience of coaching, and socio-cultural theories

  • Individuals committed to refining their leadership and coaching identities in order to provide equitable and relationship-centered support in systems. This program is designed for higher education faculty and administrators, teaching and learning leads at district or county offices, and non-profit organizations from education and non-education-based fields.
  • The Professional Leadership and Coaching Academy will be accepting 24 participants for this cohort.

Program Fees

  • Cost: $2,400 per person
  • Early Bird Registration by December 2nd: $2,150
  • Team Discount: A 25% team discount is available for eligible applications registering from the same organization with three or more participants. Discounts cannot be combined.
  • Two partial scholarships available. Contact Nancy Lee Sayre at sayre@gseis.ucla.edu for more information.

Registration Deadline: January 9, 2026

Individual Registration Team Registration

Contact Nancy Lee Sayre at sayre@seis.ucla.edu for more information.

Program Schedule and Details

  • Five-Month Online Program
  • Saturday in-person meeting at UCLA in January
  • Thursday evenings (4:00-6:00pm) and Saturday mornings (9:00am-12:00pm) once a month starting in February.

Dates

First Session In-Person at UCLA

Saturday, January 24, 2026 – 9am – 2pm

Thursday Evenings (4:00-6:00)

February 26, 2026
March 19, 2026
April 16, 2026
May 14, 2026

Saturday Mornings (9:00-12:00)

February 28, 2026
March 21, 2026
April 18, 2026
May 16, 2026

For more information, register for one of our upcoming online Information Sessions:

  • Thursday, September 18, 2025  5-6PM PST
  • Saturday, October 18, 2025 9-10AM PST

Please register and we will email a zoom link before the meetings.

Info Session Registration

Contact Nancy Lee Sayre at sayre@seis.ucla.edu for more information.

Contact Us

Director, Professional Development and Partnerships

Carrie Usui Johnson usui@seis.ucla.edu

Office of Student Affairs

(310) 825-8326

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