What does it take to sustain courage as an equity leader in higher education today? In this conversation with NADOHE board member Yvette, we explore the LACE leadership framework and the role of coaching in helping chief diversity officers and equity leaders navigate political pressure, institutional resistance, and burnout. Discover how coaching can support strategic courage, relational leadership, and institutional transformation in challenging times.

Sleep deprivation has become one of leadership’s most normalized sacrifices. In this essay, Chinyere Oparah explores how burnout, late-night work, and constant responsiveness undermine leaders’ wellbeing and decision-making. Drawing on coaching experience, sleep research, and critiques of grind culture, she argues that reclaiming sleep is both a leadership practice and a form of resistance. The piece offers leaders practical strategies for restoring healthier rhythms of work

Chinyere Oparah explores what it means to lead with courage in seasons of fear. Reflecting on the fallout from the 2025 DEI executive order and the conversations sparked at AAC&U, she examines the tension between strategy and complicity, and invites leaders to consider how small, collective acts of integrity shape institutional culture. 

As we close out a grueling year, Chinyere Oparah reflects on grief, ambiguous loss, and the quiet resilience required to keep leading with integrity and heart. As the year comes to a close, I’ve been sitting with the weight of what this year has asked of us. I suspect I'm not alone in feeling like 2025 was one of the hardest years I've lived through. Many of us are ending the year holding immense grief – sharp and visceral, or stifled and unnamed, because there was no time to

Chinyere Oparah explores the relationship between food, work, stress and leadership, and offers practical ways to reconnect with our bodies as a source of wisdom rather than an afterthought.

Chinyere Oparah explores how leaders can recover from abrupt transitions, heal workplace trauma, and chart a new path forward.

Former VPAA Dorothy Mosby shares her battle with the "Four Horsemen of Higher Education leadership" and the lessons she learned from having the courage to leave.