Empower, Equip, and Engage
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Our VISION at the Lucy Leadership Project is to increase the access and opportunity for women educators to positively impact the school systems they serve while improving the working conditions for women in leadership to thrive. ​​​​​​​​​
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Our MISSION is to prepare and empower women educators by equipping them with tools, strategies, words, and a support system to increase their leadership access and opportunities enabling them to thrive.
About Kendra & Kelly
Kendra Washington-Bass, Ph.D.
Who I AM
I am a Black mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, and woman of God. I treasure
time with my family and friends and love engaging in deep discussions about life.
I declare my Blackness because it is an important identifier to understand who I
am and how I navigate the world. I learn from each interaction and transform my
thinking. I love to laugh and I am serious - serious about ways to improve the lives
of the people I meet. I am here for a purpose and my life’s journey helps to fulfill it.
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How I Lead
I lead with passion, grace, reflection, and vulnerability. My leadership is grounded
in my beliefs, experiences, and teachings of my elders and experts in the field.
Kelly Peaks Horner
Who I AM
I am a White mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, and spiritual being. My best days
include time with my family, good friends, and deep discussions, especially with my
adult daughters, about navigating life and being a good citizen of this world. I am
keenly aware of my privilege as a White woman and make it an important aspect of
my life’s work to listen and learn from Black women and other marginalized
communities. Learning is key for how I show up in every room I am in. I wholeheartedly
believe that joy can be integrated in hard work, laughter with serious discussion, and
love with discourse.
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How I Lead
I lead with an understanding that everyone, especially every woman, has a story. And
that story matters. And that it is my job as a leader to discover how that story impacts
others, their unique talents and strengths, and to create the conditions and culture for
others to thrive.
Why Lucy?
We were determined to create a space where women educators would come together as a community, acquire tools, strategies, and words that are specific to women leaders. Our lofty goal is to increase the number of women who lead schools, districts, and campuses and who thrive in those positions. We were confident in our mission. We had specific beliefs about what women leaders need to thrive. We just needed a name.
Then…we discovered Lucy.
Lucy, the earliest known human discovered in Ethopia in 1974, got her name when a party broke out the night of the discovery and the song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was repeatedly playing in the background.
Here is what was known about “Lucy”…
She walked on two feet.
She spent a lot of time in trees
She provided new insights into the development of the human brain.
A fall from a tree might have been her demise.
She has an Ethiopian name, Dinkinesh, which means “You Are Marvelous’.
It is possible we may all have descended from this amazing Australopithecus that derived from the country of Ethiopia on the continent of Africa.
We choose “Lucy” as the name of the place where we invite women educators at all levels to come and…
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Walk [courageously] tall on two feet.
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Spend time in the “trees” learning, dreaming, and creating your path.
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Discover how you uniquely think, feel, and behave through your strengths.
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Put down your armor and pick up brave leadership. And in doing so know you will fail. Come and create a practice where you will own your story, it will not own you, and you will know how to rise from failure or disappointment in order to choose how your story ends.
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Create a leadership practice of self compassion that includes knowing we are in this together, we will create a community, and live and lead through common humanity. You, too, are marvelous!