WAHN in the Windy City – Leadership Workshop & Luncheon
Leadership Workshop: Lessons from the Cliff Edge: Resilience Skills for Leaders and the Teams they Lead 9:30-11:00
Everyone trains for the summit. You study the route, you build the team, you gear up for the climb. And when you finally reach the top, it feels like the hard part is over.
It isn’t.
The descent is where leaders are truly tested. It’s steeper than expected, the conditions shift without warning, and the adrenaline that carried you up the mountain is gone. Funding priorities change. Resources are constrained in ways we couldn’t have anticipated. Our communities are stretched to a point of breaking. And we still have assets to keep financially and physically healthy. Oh, and the daily news cycle is just straight up exhausting. Nobody put that in the leadership manual.
Resilience isn’t about reaching the top. It’s about what you do when the trail back down looks nothing like the map. When the weather turns, the team is exhausted, and you’re still responsible for getting everyone home safe and sound.
In this session, Michele Stowe will share frameworks for leaders to stay grounded and lead with resilience. Participants will explore how to make intentional choices and build agency – even in chaos. Through storytelling, practical exercises and insights from a leader who’s braved similar challenges, you’ll walk away with a renewed sense of clarity and personal action plan to guide your leadership route.
Because the summit was never really the destination. The descent is where the work begins.
Session Objectives:
To provide relevant tools and frameworks that help participants reflect and build awareness about how participants choose to lead amid uncertainty, change and chaos.
- To guide participants in exploring new ways to practice control, agency, and resiliency amid ambiguity
- To create an interactive environment for participants to learn from one another
- To create an open forum for participants to engage with a leader around their story of staying clear on their destination
- To equip participants with an action plan that supports their learning and insights and keeps them accountable
Meet Michele.
For more than 20 years, Michele Stowe has built a career around her passion: leadership development. Through her executive coaching and consulting company, SkyRocket LLC, Michele helps teams, leaders, and organizations create and experience authentic change that empowers them to produce significant and sustainable professional results.
LUNCHEON 11:30-1:30
Plan to join us November 16th for our WAHN in the Windy City luncheon, generously sponsored by ICON Builders, at the Swissôtel Chicago, the future home of Summit 2027.
This year’s theme, “Lessons I Wish I’d Learned Sooner,” features an incredible panel of leaders sharing the career advice, hard-earned wisdom, and pivotal lessons they wish they’d known earlier in their journeys:
Antoinette M. Jackson, Principal, The Banks Law Firm, P.A.
Stacy Kaplowitz, VP & Managing Regional Partner, Lincoln Avenue Communities
Perica Bell, Managing Director, April Housing
Cariño Maldonado, Chief of Staff, ICON Builders
Moderated by Andrea Keeney, VP of Development, The Michaels Organization and Co-President, Illinois Women’s Affordable Housing Network
We’re hosting our WAHN in the Windy City luncheon because you asked for it. Demand continues to grow for opportunities for women to connect, learn, and grow professionally during one of affordable housing’s busiest weeks, and WAHN is creating more space at the table.
This event isn’t about competing with anyone else’s programming; it’s about ensuring more women have access to the leadership conversations, meaningful networking, and professional development opportunities they are seeking.
And this year, we’re expanding the experience beyond the luncheon itself.
We’re developing additional leadership-focused programming and a few fun surprises for the morning of the event, giving attendees even more opportunities to connect with peers and invest in their professional growth.
Don’t wait. This event will sell out, and we want to see you there.