2026 NPN Leadership Summit & Retreat | Where Experience Becomes Expertise
About this Event
Where Experience Becomes Expertise
A Leadership Retreat Experience
The NPN Leadership Summit & Retreat is an experience unlike any other. Leaders from Community-Based NICU Support Organizations, Hospital Programs, & Industry Professionals will come together for a weekend to share best practices, participate in leadership training, connect, and take away essential tools to spur greater innovation and deeper impact.
This retreat will, quite simply, make you a better NICU Leader.
A few important notes about the agenda.
The agenda is subject to change at any time without notice.
Friday and Saturday highlight general session presentations, panel discussions, networking, tons of workshop choices, and team-building activities.
We pack A LOT into two days and encourage you to stay until the very end. We have a fun, casual group dinner on Saturday night to decompress, laugh, and connect with everyone before heading home Sunday morning. Be sure to add this ticket at check-out, it is NOT included in regular registration.
A note about breakouts:
At check-out, you will have to SELECT your breakout workshops as Add-On tickets. This is not an added cost, but simply to get an accurate headcount for each breakout due to individual room capacity restrictions. If you do not select ahead of time, we can not guarantee space will be available at the time of the Summit.
Friday Nov 6
🕑: 07:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Exhibit Area Open for Set-Up
🕑: 07:30 AM - 08:00 AM
Registration Open
🕑: 08:00 AM - 08:30 AM
Opening Remarks
Host: Keira Sorrells/NICU Parent Network
🕑: 08:30 AM - 09:45 AM
Keynote - The Deeper Why: Leading Your Mission with Trauma-Conscious Awareness
Host: Nicole Lewis-Keeber/Insightful Work
Info: Every organization in the NICU Parent Network was born from a story and that story came with you into your role. This session creates space for an honest, compassionate conversation about the relationship between personal experience, unresolved grief, and the drive to lead. Drawing on trauma-conscious principles, Nicole helps mission-driven leaders explore whether their founding why is compelling them forward or quietly shaping decisions beneath the surface and how to lead from lived experience with greater awareness and self-compassion.
🕑: 09:45 AM - 10:00 AM
Stretch Break - (grab a snack)
🕑: 10:00 AM - 11:15 AM
Building Bridges: Sustainable Hospital Partnerships
Host: Steve Jakab/True North
Info: Strong relationships between hospitals and NICU parent leaders can expand services for families while strengthening the long-term sustainability of your work. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience in healthcare philanthropy and nonprofit leadership, Steve Jakab, CFRE, will share practical insights into how hospitals make decisions, identify community collaborators, and develop successful working relationships. Attendees will learn strategies for building trust, engaging clinical and executive champions, aligning with hospital priorities, and creating collaborations that help organizations and leaders grow their impact and more effectively serve NICU families.
🕑: 11:20 AM - 12:40 PM
Lunch & Conversation Corners
Info: Grab lunch and pull up a chair at a table led by a subject matter expert on topics like fundraising, succession planning, board development, volunteer management and so much more.
🕑: 12:40 PM - 12:55 PM
Transition Time to Breakouts
🕑: 12:55 PM - 02:10 PM
Breakout (A) - Select ONE at Check out
🕑: 12:55 PM - 02:10 PM
A1 - AI in the NICU: Promise, Risk, and Responsibility
Host: Morgan Rose/Ema EQ
Info: Ai is already shaping the NICU journey from answering parents' questions at 2am to helping clinicians spot risk earlier. But is it safe, acccurate and built with families in mind? Leaders from Ema EQ, BobiHealth, and AngelEye Health join us to to discuss where AI helps, where it falls short, and what we need as NICU Parent Leaders to build and use these tools ethically and responsbily. You'll leave with practical guidance for evaluating AI critically and integrating it into your support model, without ever replacing the critical human connection at the center of your programs.
🕑: 12:55 PM - 02:10 PM
A2 - Re-shaping Organizational Climate for Collective Brilliance - ED/CEO/Pres
Host: Gigi Khonyongwa-Fernandez/GKF Coaching
Info: Trauma Informed Leadership isn’t a trend for NICU Parent Leaders, but the missing competency to solve the real problem beneath burnout, miscommunication, and constant reactivity: an overwhelmed organizational nervous system. Strategy won’t fix. This session shows you how to shape a climate that restores clarity, trust, and collaboration. Using the Human Carousel Framework, you’ll learn practical, neuroscience based tools to decrease stress and strengthen your team’s capacity to serve NICU families with steadiness and compassion.
🕑: 02:10 PM - 02:25 PM
Transition Time to Next Breakout (grab a snack)
🕑: 02:25 PM - 03:40 PM
Breakout (B) - Pick ONE at Check out
🕑: 02:25 PM - 03:40 PM
B1 - Turn Self-Awareness into Powerful Leadership -EDs/CEOs/Pres only
Host: Nicole Lewis-Keebler/Insightful Work
Info: Most leadership development focuses outward, on communication, teams, and conflict. This workshop begins with the leader. Compassionate Self Leadership is a 90 minute experiential session offering language, tools, and practices to understand how your interior experience shapes your leadership. Drawing on Kristin Neff's self-compassion research, Brené Brown's narrative work, and trauma-conscious perspectives you'll move from self-criticism toward awareness, alongside a small group of leaders who understand this weight. Tools you'll carry long after.
🕑: 02:25 PM - 03:40 PM
B2 - Everyday Leadership - for staff/volunteers only
Host: Tracy Pella/Rooted Life Empowerment
Info: Leadership isn't defined by a title, position, or years of experience. It is demonstrated through the choices we make every day, the conversations we have, the trust we build, the way we support one another, and how we show up during life's most difficult moments. Whether caring for NICU families, supporting those experiencing loss, or working alongside colleagues, every interaction is an opportunity to lead through connection, compassion, and purpose. This interactive session explores the principles of everyday leadership and how each person has the ability to positively influence families, teammates, and organizational culture regardless of their role.
🕑: 03:40 PM - 03:55 PM
Transition Time (grab a snack)
🕑: 03:55 PM - 04:25 PM
Measuring Family Centered Care
Host: Morgan Kowalski/FCC Taskforce
Info: The Family-Centered Care (FCC) Taskforce surveyed 99 NICUs on seven categories of FCC practices and the results are in! But do a hospital's resources and clinical capabilities correlate with better parent partnership? Come find out!
🕑: 04:30 PM - 04:55 PM
Improve-ise Together
Host: Ali Dunn/Me Two Books
🕑: 04:55 PM
Day 1 - Closing Reflection
🕑: 05:00 PM - 05:10 PM
Say Cheese! Group Photo
🕑: 06:30 PM - 09:30 PM
NPN Networking & Awards Dinner - Origin Hotel Austin
Info: Finish out Day 1 of the NPN Leadership Summit with one-on-one networking and dinner, then raise a glass as we celebrate the members whose innovation, collaboration, and service moved our community forward this year.
Saturday Nov 7
🕑: 08:00 AM - 08:15 AM
Opening Remarks - Day 2
🕑: 08:15 AM - 09:15 AM
Ask Me Anything
Host: Pam Frasco/Project NICU
Info: Join facilitator, author, and speaker, Ali Dunn, as she sits down with some of our most seasoned NICU parent leaders as they answer the questions you've been wanting to ask. Bring what you submitted at registration, or whatever's on your mind; nothing's off the table.
🕑: 09:15 AM - 09:30 AM
Big Ideas - When NICU Stories Move the Mission: From Empathy to Outcomes
Host: Ariel Thorne/Ariel Thorne Inc
Info: NICU Parent Leaders know the power of story. Our stories create empathy, connection, and urgency, but empathy alone does not build programs, fund support, shift systems, or improve what families experience. This Big Idea explores how NICU stories can become strategic leadership tools that move people from feeling something to doing something. By translating lived experience into clear invitations, leaders can help families, funders, healthcare partners, and communities understand their role in the solution while protecting their own well-being and moving the mission from personal pain to shared responsibility.
🕑: 09:30 AM - 09:45 AM
Big Ideas - Supporting Families Through the ROP Journey
Host: Tracy Pella/Rooted Life Empowerment
Info: Parents of children with Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) seek education and support. Prevent Blindness offers free resources for families impacted by ROP, which are informed by parent support organizations, parents, and experts. Learn about a child’s vision journey with ROP and the trusted, family-centered resources focused on understanding a ROP diagnosis, navigating treatment and follow-up care, and a child’s vision journey, and how parents can feel supported throughout their journey. This presentation will highlight parent focus group results, and discuss the importance of advocacy, and connection in strengthening support for families affected by ROP.
🕑: 09:45 AM - 10:05 AM
Advocacy in Action
Host: Jennifer Degl/Speaking for Moms & Babies
🕑: 10:10 AM - 10:25 AM
Transition to Breakouts (grab a snack)
🕑: 10:25 AM - 11:40 AM
Breakout (C) - Choose Your Breakout at Check Out
🕑: 10:25 AM - 11:40 AM
Breakout C1 - Executive Leadership Roundtable (for Founders, EDs, CEOs)
Host: Martha Sharkey/Today is a Good Day
Info: Join fellow CEOs, Executive Directors, and Founders for an intimate, confidential discussion focused on the unique opportunities and challenges of nonprofit leadership. This interactive roundtable provides a trusted space to exchange ideas, share best practices, and learn from peers navigating similar organizational, strategic, and leadership issues. Through open conversation and collaborative problem-solving, participants will leave with fresh perspectives, practical insights, and valuable connections to strengthen their organizations and advance their missions.
🕑: 10:25 AM - 11:40 AM
Breakout C2 - Embodied Grief Framework
Host: Dr. Solimar Santiago-Warner
🕑: 10:25 AM - 11:40 AM
Breakout C3 - Combining Strengths: A Model for Clinical-Community Partnership
Host: Andrea Hickson/NICU Alumni
Info: This session will provide attendees with an inside look at the Baby Steps Transition of Care Model and Program including how a successful clinical-community partnership with NICU Alumni helped to shape the program approach and maintain impact.
NICU parent leaders will learn effective strategies for initiating relationships, strategically building meaningful clinical-community partnerships, and potential pitfalls and challenges to be aware of. Attendees will walk away inspired and encouraged to pursue their own partnerships.
🕑: 11:45 AM - 12:45 PM
Lunch
🕑: 12:55 PM - 02:10 PM
Creating Inclusive NICU Communities Through Cultural Humility and Storytelling
Host: Jane Cranston/Tiny Transitions Therapy
Info: The NICU experience does not occur in isolation from culture, language, identity, socioeconomic realities, or systemic inequities. Families enter NICU and post-NICU spaces with diverse lived experiences, beliefs, strengths, and challenges that influence how they engage with care and support systems. Yet policies, language, and practices may unintentionally exclude or marginalize those they aim to serve. This interactive session, led by members of the NPN DEIB Advisory Committee, will explore cultural humility, inclusive communication, and storytelling as tools to foster belonging, strengthen family partnerships, and promote more equitable, family-centered support across the NICU continuum.
🕑: 02:10 PM - 02:25 PM
Transition Time to Breakouts (grab a snack)
🕑: 02:25 PM - 03:40 PM
Breakout (D) - Select ONE Breakout at Check Out
🕑: 02:25 PM - 03:40 PM
Breakout D1 - Building the Guidebook Together (10 seats avail)
Host: Jane Cranston/Tiny Transitions Therapy
Info: Following the general session, Courageous Conversations, attendees interested in deeper engagement will participate in an interactive breakout session focused on developing the NPN Cultural Humility and Inclusive Communication Guidebook.
🕑: 02:25 PM - 03:40 PM
Breakout D2: NICU Parents as Change Agents for Mental Health Support
Host: Mara Watts/Mammha
Info: NICU parents are badass. Not because "you're so strong" but because you merged into the high-speed parenting lane and you nailed it. This presentation honors that while also acknowledging how stressful and traumatic that time is, but also highlighting how this experience can become a superpower. What should you know about your brain, nervous system and powers of connection as you continue your journey as advocates. Let's dig into it!
🕑: 03:40 PM - 03:55 PM
Transition to Closing Session (grab a snack)
🕑: 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Supporting our NICU Fathers
Host: Adam Wood/Preemie Adventures
Info: The session will allow organizations and hospitals to better understand how to support NICU fathers throughout their journey. Provide unique insight on better ways to engage and integrate them into not only their care, but to feel supported. Help build a father-inclusive culture from admission to post-discharge.
🕑: 07:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Farewell Dinner - Optional - Add Your Ticket at Check Out
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00 to USD 695.06
