Inspire, Educate and Energize Your Audience!
Book Dr. Rabin to keynote, emcee, or moderate discussion for your upcoming event (whether in-person or virtual).
Inspire, Educate and Energize Your Audience!
Book Dr. Rabin to keynote, emcee, or moderate discussion for your upcoming event (whether in-person or virtual).
"I needed to hear this. She made me think about my role ina whole other way. Thank you!"
- Director of Curriculum and Instruction
Keynotes
As your keynote or special guest speaker, Dr. Rabin helps you establish the importance, credibility and desired tone for your event from the very start, sparking your audience’s excitement and commitment to the rest of your program. She not only educates, but motivates! Whether engaging your audience in thought-provoking questions, demystifying complex education research and concepts, sharing relatable real-life leadership anecdotes, or illuminating promising evidence-based practices, your audience will come away with actionable insights they can apply immediately.
Dr. Rabin customizes all presentations to your specific audience and message, whether you request one of her popular signature presentations (below) or propose your own topic around education leadership within categories such as:
Instructional Leadership Strategies
Leading Through Change
Cultural Competency
Principal Socioemotional Wellness
Team Building
Teacher Development
Culture of Continuous Improvement
Leadership Self-Assessment
Sample: Dr. Rabin's Signature Presentations
NOTE: Most signature presentations can be converted to half-day or full-day interactive seminars.
All leaders have strengths. However, it takes a distinct set of knowledge, skills, and mindsets to not only be an effective educational leader, but a successfulinstructional leader. In this reflective session, Dr. Rabin helps audiences consider instructional leadership strengths they may not even know they possess, starts them on the path to acquiring the strengths they need, and helps them consider ways to apply their strengths in ways that are the most relevant and helpful to the communities they serve.
NOTE: In seminar format, Dr. Rabin guides participants through a set of specially developed leadership introspection techniques they can use to come away knowing their unique instructional leadership strengths, as well as initial ways they can apply them to enhance teaching and learning in their specific school or district context.
Elements not only endure, but thrive. Derived from Dr. Rabin’s internationally-recognized study “Authenticity and the Female African American School Leader” (Nickens & Washington, 2018) and her original model of BFLV (Black Female Leadership Verisimilitude), in this inspirational keynote she illuminates the characteristics of successful Black female principals who consistently triumph over unique workplace adversity to lead happy, fulfilling personal and professional lives, without compromising their health, identity, values or sense of self.
NOTE: In seminar format, Dr. Rabin guides Black female participants through a set of specially developed leadership reflection activities to help them consider the extent of their own BFLV (Black Female Leadership Verisimilitude).
A principals’ socioemotional wellness plays a significant role in their capacity to carry out leadership responsibilities, including the care of others, particularly in times of crisis. Yet discussions of trauma-informed practices tend to focus on students and teachers, with little consideration for the school leaders tasked with caring for them all. Based on her award-winning collective case study “An Examination of Urban Education Leadership in the Time of COVID-19,” Dr. Rabin’s keynote not only sheds light on manifestations of principal trauma and the importance of principal care, but also uses first-hand accounts from principals dealing with various forms of leadership trauma, to provide district-level leaders with insights into how their systems-level policies, procedures and practices may promote a culture of) safety, support, and healing for principals, and by extension, the commmunities they serve.
While it’s essential for leaders to continually take honest assessments of their team’s efficacy and impact in order to ultimately achieve their collective goals, it’s just as important (or even more so) to acknowledge their successes along the way. In this keynote or seminar, Dr. Rabin shows how successful instructional leaders identify and maximize “wins” (however small) even in the face of what seems like a multitude of instructional challenges. Audiences will come away understanding ways they can strategically leverage those wins as a powerful tool/as a part of strategic plans for shifting mindsets, furthering organizational change and growing professional capacity and realizing student success.
NOTE: Dr. Rabin can customize this keynote or seminar to highlight the specific achievements of the client school, district, organization, community or team as part of celebratory event, a means to jump start or wrap up the school year, or set a positive tone for a team retreat. In seminar format, attendees will also have the opportunity to utilize Dr. Rabin’s strategies for identifying success of their teams and draft celebration plans.
In schools or districts that experience continuous academic improvement, success is rarely due to one leader acting alone, but often attributable to the collective efforts of a strong instructional leadership team (ILT). In this highly-applicable keynote, Dr. Rabin goes beyond merely listing general characteristics of ILTs, and reveals some of the most overlooked approaches that leaders in successful schools and districts use to cultivate ILTs that are right for the needs and culture of their educational community.
NOTE: Dr. Rabin provides a guided opportunity for instructional leaders to draft ILT development plans when this session if facilitated as a seminar.
In the midst of prolonged or recurring crisis, it’s a given that education leaders must prioritize safety and socioemotional wellness for all school and district stakeholders. At the same time, concerns about potential “learning loss,” “unfinished learning,” or “interrupted learning” leave many leaders wondering when and how to approach academics as their communities emerge from crisis. In this timely and highly-relevant keynote, Dr. Rabin (author of the award-winning study, “An Examination of Urban School Leadership in the Time of COVID-19”) contends that there is no single “right” answer and instead outlines the key contextual factors instructional leaders should consider when crafting education plans for school communities that have experienced prolonged or traumatic crisis. This, along with concrete examples of various post-crisis approaches to curriculum and instruction, enable audiences to make informed decisions about what’s appropriate for students in their community.
Although instructional leaders engage with a variety of stakeholders in their schools or districts every day, many still report feelings of isolation and loneliness. In this motivating keynote, Dr. Rabin assures audiences that leadership doesn’t have to be this way, and explains how they can leverage her concept of the “leadership village” to not only prevent or combat isolation, but to enhance their socioemotional wellbeing and strengthen their professional capacity.
NOTE: In seminar format, Dr. Rabin creates an environment where attendees can practice her popular “village building” techniques and engage with others to start building their leadership village immediately.
Literacy is typically compartmentalized within ELA, but it has also proven to be key to student success across content areas. Dr. Rabin’s illuminating keynote reframes the common concept of literacy and helps audiences understand how and why the scope of literacy teaching and learning (especially in the adolescent grades) goes beyond the ELA classroom. Principals, district administrators, instructional coaches, and content area specialists will be challenged to consider how they’re leveraging all subjects (science, math, history/social studies and arts) to enhance literacy outcomes for students in their school or district communities.
Panel Moderation
Give your audience a variety of valuable insights and diverse perspectives by having Dr. Rabin moderate a compelling panel discussion around your event topic. Using skills honed as an award-winning journalist and researcher, she will craft thought-provoking questions and flexibly facilitate intellegent discourse in a way that keeps the conversation amongst your panelists flowing, yet focused enough to accomplish your panel objectives.
To support the success of your panel, this service includes:
A pre-planning meeting with you or your event organizer to confirm your panel topic, objectives (i.e. what you want your audience to gain from this discussion)
Assistance with identifying appropriate panelists (an additinal service upon request)
An optional debrief to reflect on panel outcomes
Emcee/Hosting
Add energy and cohesiveness to your professional event by having Dr. Rabin act as your emcee or “master of ceremonies.” Whether you're planning a half-day, full-day, or multi-day event, Dr. Rabin can develop rapport with your audience quickly, help them connect to your key messages, and stay invested in the event objectives throughout.
A master facilitator in both the in-person and virtual space, she will skillfully leverage a mix of humor, anecdotes, and interactions to keep your audience engaged, while seamlessly guiding them between the different segments of your agenda.
To help your event run smoothly, Dr. Rabin will:
collaborate with you or your event organizer in advance to confirm the key messages, tone, and objectives for your event.
help you think through your ROS (run of show), including agenda items, alignment to your objectives, organization and transitions.
customize and facilitate a set of audience engagements for your event, providing attendees with an experience that's orderly, memorable and meaningful.
engage you in a debrief meeting to reflect on event outcomes and how they may drive next steps for your school, district, or organization.
Meet Your Speaker: Dr. Rabin
Dr. Rabin Nickens (also known as “Dr. Rabin”) is an award-winning educator, scholar, and former school systems leader with over 25 years of experience advancing teaching, leadership, and equity across classrooms, districts, and national platforms.
A dynamic communicator and internationally recognized speaker, she is known for delivering powerful, engaging talks tailored to audiences ranging from school leaders and educators to community stakeholders and policy influencers. In addition to her keynote addresses, Dr. Rabin is a highly sought-after moderator and event host, bringing her background as a trained journalist and NYABJ award-winning interviewer into every conversation she leads.
Her thoughtful questioning, real-world expertise, and ability to translate complex educational topics into relatable insights make her a trusted voice in both public forums and professional spaces. Her approach is grounded in research, lived experience, and the belief that authentic communication can unlock collective understanding, spark action, and create lasting impact for schools and communities alike.
Empowering education leaders to improve teaching and learning.
©2024 Rabin Nickens Consulting LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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Empowering education leaders to improve teaching and learning.
©2024 Rabin Nickens Consulting LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Contact