National Advanced Leadership Retreat
Deeper work to lead in a complex world.
An advanced and immersive retreat for ALF Senior Fellows—in nature, in community, and from the inside out, to strengthen diverse leaders serving the common good.
APRIL 4-8, 2027
WESTERBEKE RANCH, SONOMA, CA
5 DAY RESIDENTIAL RETREAT
25 ALF SENIOR FELLOWS
OPEN TO ALL ALF CHAPTERS
Five core learning outcomes.
Each day builds on the last. You will move from grounding and expanding your leadership lens, through deep diagnostic and inner work, into action, experimentation, and ultimately re-entry. By the end of the retreat, you will leave with new tools and frameworks, deeper self-awareness, a personal leadership challenge, and a national community of practice.
01
Expand your leadership lens
02
Strengthen your inner systems
03
Lead in complex systems
04
Build resilience and adaptive humility
05
Cultivate a lasting community of practice
Why this retreat?
The world our organizations and communities navigate today is not the world for which most leadership programs were designed. The challenges are adaptive—complex, uncertain, and resistant to technical fixes.
This first-of-its-kind national gathering brings together 25 senior fellows from across all ALF chapters, not for more information but for transformation.
You will be invited to examine your own leadership assumptions, sit with discomfort, and practice leading with greater awareness, adaptability, and authenticity. This is the work done from the inside out and in relationship with others.
Grounded in the adaptive leadership framework developed at the Harvard Kennedy School, and shaped through decades of ALF practice, this retreat is designed for leaders who are ready to go deeper.
Adaptive leadership for a complex world.
The Framework
Developed at the Harvard Kennedy School and taught globally, the adaptive leadership framework is a practical, rigorous approach for leading through change, uncertainty, and complexity. It is not a formula, it is a practice.
It relies heavily on inner work. It pulls deeply from nature and biology. It holds that leadership is fundamentally relational. It defines leadership as an activity, not a role. And it asks us to distinguish between the technical problems we can solve and the adaptive challenges that require something more difficult: change in ourselves and our systems.
Productive Disequilibrium
Learn to hold and regulate the right amount of heat, enough to catalyze change without losing the people you lead.
Leadership vs. Authority
Separate the role you hold from the act of leadership itself. Learn to act out of awareness rather than conditioning.
Technical vs. Adaptive Challenges
Recognize when a problem requires a new solution versus when it demands a change in values, beliefs, or behavior.
Inside Out Work
Examine the assumptions, default behaviors, and loyalties that shape, and sometimes limit, your leadership.
In relationship. In nature. From the inside out.
The ALF Way
This retreat is designed to be experienced, not just learned. It carries forward the essential spirit and values that have defined the ALF fellows experience for decades.
Check-in and grounding practices to begin each day with intention.
Learning circles that bridge across differences and hold the whole person and group, where everyone is a learner and everyone is a teacher.
Connection to nature: reflective solo time, walks, peaceful outdoor spaces, and evening fireside.
Peer consultation groups: sounding boards for your real challenges.
The power of the pause: space to process, reflect, and internalize.
A focus on relationship building to do the difficult work of learning and transformation.
A setting that does its own kind of teaching.
The retreat takes place at Westerbeke Ranch, a beloved, historic retreat center nestled among stately oaks and rolling vineyards in Sonoma's Valley of the Moon.
It’s not a hotel. It’s not a conference center. It is a sanctuary. That distinction matters for the work we will do together.
Charming redwood shared cabin lodging, each with private bath, nestled along wooded garden paths
Three exquisite, farm-to-table prepared meals daily, plus afternoon snacks and all-day coffee station
Spacious indoor meeting rooms and abundant outdoor gathering space
Walking trails through nature
A swimming pool and soothing hot tub
Surrounded by the vineyards and rolling hills of Sonoma's Valley of the Moon
Exclusive use of the full property as we will be the only group there
What awaits you:
WESTERBEKE RANCH, SONOMA
A world-class facilitation team.
Your facilitation team brings together Harvard and NYU-trained adaptive leadership practitioners with decades of combined experience across nonprofit, civic, higher education, and business contexts across the country, and around the world.
Judy Le, MA, BCC
ALF-Houston Lead Facilitator|CEO, TakeRoot LLC | Lecturer, Rice University
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Judy has over 25 years of experience developing leaders across the corporate, nonprofit, and higher education sectors. As the founding president of TakeRoot, LLC, she works with people and organizations navigating difficult change, with clients that include Boston Consulting Group, Baylor College of Medicine, Arnold Ventures, General Mills, and the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam.
Judy teaches leadership at Rice University, where she previously served as director of the Center for Civic Leadership. She recently joined the teaching team for the Center for Poland's Advanced Leadership Program, bringing her adaptive leadership practice internationally. She also leads facilitation and curriculum design for the American Leadership Forum of Greater Houston, a program she knows intimately as a senior fellow herself.
Her practice is grounded in her own lived experiences. Judy came to America as a Vietnamese refugee and witnessed firsthand how leadership is needed at every level of a community, not just at the top. That experience shaped her approach: embracing uncertainty, getting clarity around what matters most, and building trust as the foundation of all meaningful work.
Judy received her adaptive leadership training at the Harvard Kennedy School, holds a graduate degree from the University of Texas and a bachelor's from Rice University, and is a board-certified executive and team performance coach. She serves on multiple local and national nonprofit boards advancing equity, education, and access, and was recently honored as a Global Leader of Influence by the World Affairs Council of Houston.
Marc Manashil, MPA, MSW
Co-founder, NYU Adaptive Leadership in Human Services Institute | Lecturer, UC Davis | Principal, CoInnovate Consulting
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Marc is a consultant and educator specializing in collaboration and leadership development. Marc spent his early career working in philanthropy where he served as longtime executive director of a foundation promoting international grantmaking to grassroots organizations worldwide. He also served in senior roles with several international NGOs, including a medical relief organization working in Latin America and a global health organization working to prevent child mortality in West Africa.
While pursuing an MPA at the Harvard Kennedy School, Marc studied with adaptive leadership founder, Dr. Ronald Heifetz, and subsequently became a teaching assistant to Dr. Dean Williams. In the years since, he has developed and facilitated hundreds of adaptive leadership classes and programs throughout the nonprofit and public sectors, in the U.S. and internationally.
Marc is an Adjunct Assistant Professor and Co-Founder of the Adaptive Leadership in Human Services Institute at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work, a Lecturer at the University of California, Davis and Principal of CoInnovate Consulting, which provides leadership training to organizations and communities worldwide. In addition to his MPA, Marc holds a Master of Social Welfare from the University of California, Berkeley and a BA in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Kevin Parker, PhD
Founder & Chair, Whitworth University Institute of Leadership | Facilitator, Rodel Institute | Lecturer, University of Virginia
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Kevin is a leadership scholar, educator, entrepreneur, and former legislator whose work bridges business, public service, and human resilience. He is the CEO and owner of fourteen Dutch Bros Coffee locations in the Spokane, Washington region, leading more than 250 employees in one of the largest franchises in the Dutch Bros system.
A survivor of the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, Kevin brings a deeply personal perspective to his work on resilience, leadership, and purpose. Kevin founded and chairs the Institute of Leadership at Whitworth University and also teaches at the University of Virginia and the Rodel Institute. At Rodel, he annually works with federal judges and a bipartisan group of the country’s top politicians. He previously served as a visiting facilitator at Harvard Kennedy School and has worked with leaders in New Zealand, England, Germany, and Africa.
Kevin served four terms in the Washington State Legislature, where he helped negotiate the state’s $36 billion budget, and later served as a senior advisor to a member of the U.S. Congress.He holds a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies and continues to dedicate his work to developing courageous and thoughtful leaders. He also holds an MBA.
Kevin is a published researcher on leadership and has a book coming out next year titled “Leading with Resilience.”
For Senior Fellows ready to go further.
Who should attend?
This retreat is not an introduction to leadership. It is an invitation to go deeper: designed for senior fellows who are navigating complex challenges or difficult transitions, personally or professionally, and ready to push on the edges of their own understanding and practice.
You are a strong fit for this retreat if you:
Are a current ALF senior fellow from any chapter and are ready to engage seriously with adaptive leadership frameworks and inner work
Lead — formally or informally — through complex challenges in your own personal life, organization, or community, and want tools and community to do it better
Are prepared to show up fully: in reflection, in relationship, in nature, and in honest dialogue with your peers
Believe that how you lead from the inside shapes what you are able to do on the outside, and want to live that more fully.
Spots are limited. Register now!
Space is limited to 25 senior fellows. Reserve your place early.
What's included:
Your registration fee covers everything you need to be fully present for the work:
All on-site meals throughout the retreat — breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily, prepared fresh at Westerbeke Ranch; afternoon snacks and all-day coffee station
Facilitation from world-class practitioners with decades of experience in local and global settings
Program materials and curriculum resources
Exclusive access to the entire retreat center, including labyrinth, pool, hot tub, and all indoor and outdoor areas
On-site accommodations in charming redwood cabins with private bathrooms (all rooms are shared occupancy)
A total of 7 single rooms are available for an additional $600 each
What's not included:
Travel to and from the retreat center
Personal travel incidentals
The closest major airports are San Francisco International (SFO) and Oakland International (OAK). For directions and transportation options to Westerbeke Ranch, visit: thewesterbekeranch.com/explore/locale/#transport
Plan to arrive at the site by 2pm on April 4th and plan to depart from the site no earlier than 11am on April 8th.
This retreat is a rare opportunity—the first national gathering of its kind for ALF senior fellows, with a world-class facilitation team, located in a picturesque setting.
With only 25 spots available and an early bird rate in effect through September 30, we encourage you to register as soon as you are ready.
Early Bird | Ends 9/30: $5,300/person
Standard | After 9/30: $5,800/person
A total of seven private rooms are available for an additional $600 each.