Friday–Sunday, November 20–22, 2026 · 9:00 AM–4:00 PM
1231 Upas St., San Diego, CA 92103
Registration closes Wednesday, November 18 · Limited to 25 participants
Every leader eventually realizes that expertise alone can't solve the toughest problems. Leading a team through change, handling conflict, making decisions without all the facts, and balancing competing priorities are all about people.
The RISE Executive Leadership Training is a three-day professional development experience built on practical frameworks, experiential learning, and guided application. It draws on the signature approaches of the nine-month RISE Urban Leadership Fellows Program, which has helped nearly 250 leaders grow since 2014, and brings them into a focused intensive for professionals who want depth without a year-long commitment.
“I have a newfound awareness of my personal power and the responsibility I have to use it well.”
Three days, each building on the last
Day 1 · The Inner Work of Leadership
Explore how identity, purpose, values, emotions, and habitual responses shape your judgment, communication, and responses under pressure.
Day 2 · The Relational Work of Leadership
Examine how power, authority, roles, boundaries, and group dynamics influence trust, collaboration, accountability, and conflict.
Day 3 · Leadership in Action
Bring your insights to real challenges: navigating uncertainty, working across competing perspectives, and leading organizational change.
Participants will develop:
Emotional Intelligence and Self-Management
Team Dynamics and Collaborative Leadership
Conflict Resolution and Organizational Trust
Adaptive Leadership and Systems Change
By the end of the training, participants will be better equipped to:
Remain composed during challenging conversations and high-pressure situations
Identify patterns in team dynamics that influence trust and accountability
Make informed decisions amid uncertainty
Guide teams through change while maintaining momentum
“It gifted me a community of support, deeper insights to my leadership skills, and the confidence to be authentically myself in any/all spaces.”
Learn from experienced RISE faculty
The training is led by Fellowship faculty with formal academic education in leadership studies and lived executive, organizational, and community leadership experience. Together, they bring more than 70 years of experience in leadership training, development, and education, including work with complex global organizations.
With only 25 participants, expect hands-on practice, open discussion, and direct feedback rather than lectures. You're encouraged to bring a real leadership challenge and leave with strategies you can use right away.
Who should attend:
New managers, mid-career leaders taking on more responsibility, and senior executives leading organizations through change, from corporate, nonprofit, public sector, academic, community, and arts and cultural fields, as well as entrepreneurs and emerging leaders.
Program Details
Investment: $1,995 for the full three-day training
Group rate: Save 15% when three or more register from your organization
Included: Employer invoicing available · Certificate of completion
Eligibility: No application required; registration is open to all
Program Information Sessions (Zoom)
Wednesday, October 28, 2026, 6:00 PM
Wednesday, November 4, 2026, 6:00 PM
Questions? Email fellows@risesandiego.org. Need help explaining the program's value to your employer? We'll send a one-page overview to share.
Program Facilitators
Ale Uzárraga
Ale is a transborder community leader, leadership educator, and artist with over a decade of experience designing and facilitating community-centered programs for youth, artists, educators, nonprofit leaders, and community organizers across the San Diego and Tijuana border region.
Her approach to leadership development is informed by Indigenous teachings that emphasize relationality, reciprocity, and cultural sustainability, grounded in the belief that leadership is cultivated through lived experience, community knowledge, and collective responsibility. Through her work, she creates spaces where people deepen self- awareness, lead from purpose and remember the collective capacity to advance social transformation in ways that honor our interconnectedness with the land, life, and all beings.
Roxanne J. Kymaani, PhD
Roxanne is a Life Transformation Strategist and Owner of Kymaani Catalyst Consulting, a self-owned coaching and consulting business dedicated to helping individuals, communities, and organizations create a more just and equitable society. Roxanne offers inclusive practice frameworks that bridge communities across racial, economic, religious, and cultural divides. She engages her clients in diversity, equity, and inclusion work using an identity construction lens that allows people to connect to who they are and how they show up in the world, as the entry point for understanding the external systems in their community that create the internal realities that many people experience daily.
Roxanne’s passion is to support others in constructing their authentic self and creating an understanding of who they are "being" as a way of developing a new relationship with themselves that offers a fresh dialogue for how to view and experience the world. Using this as her foundation, she supports individuals and organizations to create an environment where we are free from fear and can develop, explore, and express our true capabilities.
In addition to her consulting, Roxanne is a Senior Equity Leadership Consultant for the National Equity Project, a leadership and systems change organization committed to increasing the capacity of people to achieve thriving, self-determining, educated, and just communities. She received a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Leadership Studies with an emphasis in Human Development from the University of San Diego. She is a certified Life/Executive Coach through Accomplishment Coaching. Additionally, Roxanne serves as the board co-chair for the San Diego Food Systems Alliance.
Roxanne’s specialties include dialogue, liminality, identity construction, diversity, equity and inclusion, community development, group dynamics, leadership development, systems thinking, and cultural competency.
Jonathan Villafuerte, MSc
Jonathan helps mission-driven organizations turn ambitious goals into strategy, systems, partnerships, and measurable results.
For 15+ years, he's consulted across hundreds of education, nonprofit, and private sectors - supporting executives, teams, and organizations with strategy, organizational effectiveness, leadership development, continuous improvement, and implementation.
Steve Askar
The stuff that goes on resumes: Steve received summa-cum laude honors at BYU (B.S), Johns Hopkins (M.S) and The Harvard Graduate School of Education (M.Ed). He was awarded the San Diego County Early Childhood Educator of the Year Award (2017), the San Diego Teach For Innovation Award for Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (2019), the Harvard Intellectual Contribution Award (2020) and the Harvard Social Impact Ward (2021). He scaled a reading startup that impacted nearly half a million students. He has served as part of San Diego RISE faculty for three years, and he’s currently the CEO of two social impact startups.
The stuff you don’t find on resumes: Steve received his entry into life as the son of Persian immigrants who came to the US in the late 70s. He has two older siblings: Jamshid, Royah… and he’s Steve. He was afforded an added layer of privilege with his name and grew up in a world where he experienced the injustice of people being treated differently based on their name, skin color, gender, and other social constructs. He became a teacher because he loves to learn. And he has grown businesses because it’s fascinating to him how large systems function as embodiments of identity and purpose in pursuit of targeted impact. He is a dad. A poet. A chess player. A surfer. An endurance athlete. A lover of nature. He is figuring it out as he goes along, one breath at a time.
Tanissha “Tee” Harrell
Tee is a relational and community-centered leader, advocate, facilitator, and catalyst for meaningful change. With more than 30 years of experience in the nonprofit and public benefit sectors, she has dedicated her career to advancing opportunities, strengthening communities, and creating pathways toward greater dignity, independence, and collective well-being.
As a Senior Program Manager at CSH, Tanissha brings extensive experience in program development, technical assistance, community engagement, and systems-level change. Her work spans supportive housing, disability services, employment and workforce development, and initiatives supporting individuals impacted by homelessness and the justice system. Throughout her career, she has worked alongside individuals, organizations, and community partners to strengthen organizational capacity, cultivate partnerships, and advance more equitable and responsive systems.
Drawing from her lived experiences and a deep appreciation for the complexities of human experience, Tanissha approaches leadership through connection, curiosity, compassion, and authenticity. She believes meaningful transformation requires more than technical solutions; it calls for relationships grounded in trust, an understanding of context, and the courage to navigate complexity and uncertainty together.
As a catalyst for connection, collective growth, and transformation, Tanissha creates spaces where individuals and teams can engage in honest dialogue, challenge conventional thinking, and imagine new possibilities. Her leadership practice honors collective wisdom, embraces different perspectives, and encourages individuals to recognize their own capacity to influence change. She brings clarity, steadiness, and intention to complex conversations while fostering environments where learning, accountability, and innovation can emerge.
Beyond her professional accomplishments, Tanissha is a mother, healer, and lifelong learner who views leadership as both a responsibility and an evolving practice. She understands that individual growth and systemic change are deeply interconnected and believes that lasting transformation begins with human connection.
At the heart of her work is a commitment to cultivating environments where people feel seen, valued, and empowered to shape their own futures.
Salina Villegas
Salina is a hood scholar raised in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego, California. For the last fifteen years, Salina has served non-profit, corporate, educational, and government sectors in their efforts to provide leadership development, educational equity, and culture change initiatives. She is committed to the genuine inclusion of diverse groups and takes a healing-centered approach to change efforts that involve deep dialogue, skilled facilitation, and systems thinking. Currently, she works with the Department of Race & Equity at the City of San Diego. Her role involves developing content and facilitating trainings, workshops, and programs focused on advancing racial equity and inclusion for City departments, mayoral appointees, and city council offices. She is a first-generation college student and has earned two Bachelor of Arts, in Rhetoric Studies and American Studies, from the University of California, Berkeley (2012), and a Master of Arts in Leadership Studies from the University of San Diego (2020). Salina was awarded the Intellectual Contribution Award (2021) while pursuing a Master's in Education in Prevention Science and Practice at Harvard's Graduate School of Education (2021).
