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Ross Wehner
Founder | World Leadership School Ross Wehner, Founder of World Leadership School, specializes in helping organizations build high-impact leadership development programs. Ross is also Founding Partner of World Action Teams (www.worldactionteams.com), the mission of which is to help corporations develop leaders who create value for business and society. Ross’ approach to leadership development integrates his work as a journalist, teacher, and wilderness educator. As a journalist, Ross covered the end of Chile’s Pinochet regime for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1990. For the next five years, he reported from around Latin America on climate change, human rights, outdoor adventure, and other topics for Mother Jones, Utne Reader, Outside, and Ski magazines. As a teacher, Ross has worked at The Miller School of Albemarle in Crozet, Virginia, The Bush School in Seattle, and the University of Virginia, where he earned his M.A. in Spanish American literature in 1999. As a wilderness instructor, Ross worked for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and Alpine Ascents, an international climbing agency in Seattle. Ross believes that organizations should connect with their mission and values and take advantage of leadership mentors within their extended community when building a sustainable leadership development program.
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Jessica Catoggio
Director of Professional Learning | World Leadership School Jessica Catoggio has deep experience coaching teachers around project-based learning. She is passionate about building communities and aims to connect with others through differences and similarities. She values inquiry, curiosity, and in-depth questioning and helps teachers create dynamic classroom communities in which all students thrive. Jessica is a veteran teacher with 20 years experience in both public and independent schools, including the last 13 years as a lower school teacher at Collegiate School in Richmond, VA. While at Collegiate, Jessica evolved her project-based approach after taking multiple PBL trainings and receiving her coaching certificate from the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education. At Collegiate, she coached her colleagues through the stages of project-based learning and helped lead an effort to establish capstone projects. She earned her Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia and went on to receive a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. In her free time, she enjoys reading, baking, traveling, and paddling Richmond’s beautiful James River with her husband and two children. She can’t leave home without her Sheepadoodle puppy, Rally!
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Dr. Pascal Losambe
Upper School Dean of Students | Columbus Academy Dr. Pascal Losambe has a Bachelor’s in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Middlebury College (VT) and a Master’s of Science in Biology from Boston College where he received the Donald J. White award for teaching excellence, a distinguished honor given annually to graduate instructors. Dr. Losambe has earned his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Purdue University with a focus on cultural competence. Additionally, he serves on regional diversity boards, has led strategic vision initiatives for various institutions, and has conducted multiple workshops on cultural competence at national and international conferences. Dr. Losambe’s achievements include the Mosaic Award in 2018, and being invited onto the Purdue University Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Advisory Board and the Independent School Association of the Central States Equity and Justice Committee Board.
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Daren Dickson
Chief Culture Officer | Valor Collegiate Academies Daren Dickson is the chief culture officer at Valor Collegiate Academies, a small charter management organization in Nashville, TN. At Valor, Daren has helped create Valor’s Compass – a comprehensive human development model that is at the core of Valor’s school model. He believes that adopting a human development and relationship-based approach to education is crucial for our world if we are to regain our collective balance and tackle the increasingly complex problems that face us.
Before starting Valor in 2013, Daren spent 16 years developing his skills as a therapist, clinical and program director, and social justice advocate in California. He is a licensed marriage and family therapist and has spent much of his career working with vulnerable youth and communities through Seneca Center, a non-profit agency in the Bay Area, California. Much of Daren’s work at Valor is a translation of this work for a public school setting and focuses on intentional personal growth, community-building, trauma-informed practices, and restorative discipline. Daren has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mechanical engineering (Denver University and Stanford University) and a master’s degree in integral counseling (California Institute of Integral Studies). In his free time, he likes to revel in his twin six-year-olds who remind him to be present, wild, and embodied. He also loves spending time with his wife, Lauren, who is his rock and partner in social work, and with his dog, Jetsan, who reminds him daily what it means to give goodwill freely to the world. |
