HGSE Course Prepares Future School Leaders to Meet Any Crisis

School leaders face no shortage of challenges or advice on crisis leadership, but that guidance can feel abstract when decisions must be made in real time. At HGSE, Lecturer Richard Melvoin helps students practice those moments before they happen.

In his course, Leading a School Through Challenge and Crisis, Melvoin moves students beyond theory to work through real-world scenarios — from everyday disruptions to major crises — that school leaders inevitably encounter. 

As a former school leader with more than 25 years of experience who now advises schools on governance and strategy, he brings that perspective directly into the classroom. “We're looking in very concrete ways at things that happen in the life of schools — public, private, parochial, U.S., and international. The appeal is that anyone working in a school knows things will happen,” Melvoin says. “I want students to think about what it means to lead in those situations. There are theories of leadership, but it’s different when you have to do it.”

Offered as a J-term course for online students and a spring module on campus, the class is capped at 25 students to enable interactive discussions.

For students, that shift from theory to practice is part of what makes the course distinct.

For online master’s student Hadley Westman, a dean of teaching and learning at Deerfield Academy — a private boarding school in western Massachusetts — the course offered a way to reflect on both the crises she’s experienced and the ones that may still lie ahead.

“I find that working in a boarding school, that array of crises feels omnipresent because students are living here all the time,” she says. “So, crises are often front of the mind.” 

While the course tackles a range of challenges from natural disasters and school shootings to internal issues like budget shortfalls or personnel concerns, a core tenet of the class is recognizing that there is no way to fully prepare for a crisis.

Westman admits accepting that reality can be tough, even as the course focuses on developing the qualities that can guide you. “Part of what makes for a crisis is that you are caught off-guard, you don’t know exactly what to do, and you need to rely on your team and your own ability to respond and adapt quickly to meet the moment, whatever that moment is,” she says.

One of her biggest takeaways is leadership responsibility goes beyond students to also supporting teachers and staff through uncertainty. Tori Neason, Ed.M.’25, agrees.

“To some extent, you're flying by the seat of your pants and building the plane as you’re headed down the runway,” says Neason, who took the course last year while in the Education Leadership, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship Program. “But if you have the right mindset and skills and you’ve honed how you engage with your team and the culture of your team, you can make it through even those weird, crazy things.”

Among one of the most helpful parts of the course for Neason was identifying her leadership style, particularly her approach to decision-making and thinking — tools she’s uses in her current role as executive director of strategic initiatives at Colby College.

Deep dives into case studies and interactive discussions are rounded out by a variety of guest speakers who share their experiences leading through crisis, such as the school leader who worked in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. After the talks the class pivots to questions: What are the steps you take? What are the things you try to do to rebuild when you face that level of crisis?

“There’s a tremendous value in being able to talk to, process, learn from, and ask questions of other leaders as you think about your own leadership,” Westman says. “I’ve never been in this space specifically dedicated to that kind of relational learning.” 

Too often leadership positions operate in isolation, a piece that Melvoin acknowledges needs to shift to make these high-pressure roles with short tenures into more sustainable ones. The average tenure for a Boston Public Schools principal is about three years, and many superintendents leave within five. He notes that this is one of the most challenging moments in school leadership in the past half century, as school leaders navigate increasing political and social pressures. 

That’s why Melvoin emphasizes not only the tasks leaders must manage, but also how to build teams, lean on colleagues, and carry the personal weight of the role. “The immediate crises that call for running into a building to rescue someone, that’s usually not what this is about,” he says. “I hope they can make peace with doing the best they can and realizing that’s all they can do.”

Taking on that responsibility also means taking care of yourself, a concept that resonates throughout the class. “You can have this idea that you need to be a stone-faced leader, be strong for folks. And yes, that’s true to some extent,” Neason says. “But vulnerability matters. Leaning into the fact that this work is important, and sometimes emotional, means allowing yourself to feel, while also knowing what you need to do outside of work to sustain yourself.”

That thinking is what Melvoin hopes his students will take with them. “If you’re exhausted, if you don’t have the support you need, that’s not doing anybody any good,” he says. “You have to have some sense of your core self — something that can carry you forward.”