CALSA's Summer Institute 2026

Educational leadership today spans multiple generations of educators, each bringing different perspectives on stress, work-life balance, communication, and self-care. For Latino leaders in particular, these dynamics are often layered with cultural expectations around service, sacrifice, and community responsibility. These differences often surface in workplace conflict, leadership challenges, and varying expectations about professional boundaries and self-care.
From an HR and organizational leadership perspective, many of these challenges often reflect differences in emotional regulation, interpersonal communication, and stress management that emerge when multiple generations work together in the same workplace.
In this session, we will share how educational leaders can better understand and navigate generational differences in workplace stress and mental health. Using the framework of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), participants will focus on four core skill areas 1) mindfulness, 2) distress tolerance, 3) emotion regulation, and 4) interpersonal effectiveness, and apply them to real leadership challenges in schools.
Through the combined perspectives of educational leadership and clinical mental health practice, participants will learn how DBT-informed strategies can strengthen leadership resilience, improve workplace relationships, and create healthier school environments.
Participants will leave with practical tools they can immediately apply to support staff well-being, navigate generational differences, and build more emotionally sustainable leadership practices.