Dr. Helen Kelly

Dr. Helen Kelly has spent nearly a decade doing something most people in education only talk about: rigorously researching what actually works when it comes to staff wellbeing in schools — and what doesn't.

A former international school principal who led schools in Asia and Europe, Helen retired from school leadership in 2020 and turned her full attention to the question that had shaped much of her career: why do so many well-intentioned wellbeing initiatives fail to make a lasting difference? Her answer, grounded in research and hard-won experience, is both honest and hopeful. The problem, more often than not, isn't effort — it's strategy.

Before moving into education, Helen spent ten years as a lawyer specialising in workplace health and safety, a background that gives her work a distinctive edge. She understands systems, accountability, and the gap between policy and practice — and she brings all of that to the way she thinks about schools.

Today, Helen works with school leaders around the world through consultancy, coaching, and workshops — including Being Strategic About Staff Wellbeing, Leading with Culture, and Sleep Well, Lead Well. Her work is evidence-based, practical, and shaped by a genuine belief that when the adults in a school community flourish, students do too.

Helen will open the conference with a keynote that challenges schools to move beyond quick fixes and toward something that lasts.

Nicole McDermott

Nicole McDermott knows what it takes to lead a school through the hard things — because she did it for eighteen years.

As the head of an award-winning independent school in Northern Virginia from 2005 to 2023, Nicole didn't just manage an institution. She built a culture. She led through change, navigated conflict, held teams together through uncertainty, and created the kind of environment where people felt genuinely seen. Along the way, she became deeply committed to one idea: that courage is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to show up anyway.

That commitment led her to train as a Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator — one of a select group trained directly in Dr. Brené Brown's research on vulnerability, courage, and leadership. She is also a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, a Certified Practitioner of the EQ-i 2.0 emotional intelligence tools, a Trust at Work® Certified Practitioner, and an ICF-accredited coach. She holds a Master's in Education Leadership and a certificate in positive leadership from George Mason University.

Nicole has facilitated sessions for groups ranging from 50 to 1,000 people. She has worked with leadership teams, volunteer organisations, and schools across the country on building trust, shifting culture, and developing the kind of leaders who bring out the best in the people around them.

She believes, with characteristic directness, that we can do hard things. At her school, a wooden sign with those words was hung in 2015 — years before it became a familiar phrase. That tells you something about Nicole.

At this conference, Nicole will bring her warmth, her honesty, and her practitioner's instinct for what educators actually need — not theory for its own sake, but tools and perspective they can use on Monday morning.