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 and rest.

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.