Chinyere Oparah reflects on the challenges facing higher education leaders in this moment and how coaching and peer support can help leaders navigate uncertainty, transition, and difficult decisions with courage, clarity, and community.

Chinyere Oparah offers advice for leaders taking on new roles that can’t be found in traditional leadership books. For women, leaders of color, LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent leaders, proving your worth can be the wrong first move. Instead, she offers practical strategies for building power, practicing strategic courage, protecting your sustainability, and staying long enough to make the impact you came to make.

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.