ASCEND Leadership Lab | Powered by Bo Knowz Learning & Head Start East

About the Lab

This Is Not a Traditional
Professional Development Program

The ASCEND Leadership Lab is a structured, job-embedded experience where leaders actively design, test, and refine solutions to real challenges within their own organizations. Created and led by Dr. Kimberly Honnick of Bo Knowz Learning, ASCEND is proudly presented by Head Start East as part of its national professional development platform.

Participants enter the Lab with a Problem of Practice, a high-leverage leadership challenge impacting their program. Through a series of Problem of Practice Lab Cycles, leaders engage in a disciplined process of understanding root causes, designing strategic responses, testing solutions in real time, and analyzing results to refine their approach.

Powered by the ELEVATE Method™, the Lab integrates vision-driven leadership, Design Thinking, data-informed decision-making, and systems alignment across people, resources, and strategy.

Lab-Based Learning

Real challenges. Real data. Real solutions tested inside your own organization.

Cohort Model

Leaders grow alongside and because of each other across 18 months.

Data-Informed

Every decision grounded in evidence. Every prototype tested. Every outcome measured.

Capstone Project

A culminating body of leadership work presented on a national stage.

The Lab Experience

Why We Call It a Lab

ASCEND is not a course you sit through. It is a leadership laboratory, a place where early childhood leaders bring real organizational challenges, examine them from every angle, design solutions grounded in data and evidence, test those solutions inside their own programs, and refine their approach based on what they learn.

That process, repeated across 18 months, is what transforms good managers into executive-level leaders. It is rigorous, structured, and deeply practical. And like any real laboratory, it requires the right environment: trust among colleagues, expert guidance, and a shared commitment to the work.

ASCEND Leadership Lab. A.L.L. As in, all in. When you join this cohort, you are making a commitment to go all in on your own leadership growth, all in on solving the real problems in your organization, and all in on a community of peers who will challenge you, support you, and hold you accountable for 18 months. That is what separates ASCEND from everything else in this field.

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Your Lab Coat

Every member of the Founding Cohort receives a custom-embroidered white lab coat. It is not just swag. It is a symbol, a daily reminder that you have stepped into the role of a leadership scientist. You are no longer simply managing programs. You are conducting deliberate, evidence-based experiments in your organization that produce real, measurable results for children, families, and staff.

In-Person Intensives

Two immersive experiences at HSE conference events

National Stage

Present your Capstone to a professional audience

Lifetime Network

A national peer community that continues beyond the Lab

Who It's For

Built for Leaders Ready
to Lead Differently

Executive Directors & CEOs

Navigating complex systems, accountability, and organizational sustainability.

Program Directors

Managing multi-site operations and large teams across programs.

Education Managers

Driving instructional quality, staff development, and compliance readiness.

Emerging Leaders

Preparing for expanded responsibility and executive-level thinking.

You do not need an executive title. You need an executive mindset.

Express Your Interest

Curriculum Framework

Six Pillars of Executive Leadership

Each pillar is woven throughout the 18-month experience, anchored in the ELEVATE Method™ and aligned to the Head Start Program Performance Standards.

Leadership Identity, Mindset & Emotional Intelligence

Behavioral assessments, executive mindset, team dynamics, and the identity shift from manager to strategic leader.

Mission, Vision & Strategic Coherence

Using vision as a decision filter, building strategic alignment, and structured moments of reflection and recalibration.

People Systems: Wellness, Retention & Culture

Staff sustainability, organizational climate, belonging, and leading systems that strengthen your team.

Planning, Resources & Sustainability

Budgeting as leadership, resource alignment, strategic allocation, and diversifying funding streams.

Coaching, Feedback & Continuous Improvement

Practice-Based Coaching, the data-to-feedback-to-planning loop, and conversations that improve practice.

Federal Monitoring Readiness

Embedded across all pillars. Standards-aligned decisions. Proactive readiness, not reactive compliance.

Program Architecture

The 18-Month Journey

Each phase builds deliberately on the last, moving leaders from awareness through strategy to implementation and sustained impact.

Summer 2026

Enrollment & Cohort Selection

Applications open, information sessions held, and the Founding Lab Cohort is selected. Seats are limited to 30 leaders nationally.

August 2026

Orientation & Onboarding

Participants complete behavioral assessments, join the learning community, and begin identifying the leadership challenge that will anchor their experience.

Fall 2026 through Spring 2027

Foundation & Strategy Phases

Monthly virtual sessions, Learning Teams, and coaching labs. Participants build leadership clarity, define their Problem of Practice, and design and test strategic solutions inside their organizations.

April 2027

Midpoint Leadership Institute

A full-day in-person intensive at the Head Start East Annual Conference in Puerto Rico, April 12 through 15, 2027. Deep cohort bonding, expert sessions, and accelerated capstone development.

Fall 2027 through Spring 2028

Implementation & Sustainability Phases

Leaders implement at scale, collect real-time data, refine their approach through iterative lab cycles, and finalize their Capstone Lab Project.

Spring 2028

Graduation & Leadership Showcase

The Founding Cohort presents their Capstone work at a national leadership event, stepping onto a professional stage as demonstrated, data-informed early childhood leaders.

What Graduates Leave With

Real Results. Not Just a Certificate.

Capstone Lab Project

A completed, data-informed body of work addressing a real organizational challenge with measurable outcomes.

Executive Clarity

The mindset, presence, and strategic coherence to lead at an executive level regardless of title.

Data-Informed Practice

The ability to use data to guide decisions, not just report outcomes.

National Peer Network

Lifetime membership in a community of early childhood leaders committed to growth.

Monitoring Readiness

Proactive, documented leadership alignment to the Head Start Program Performance Standards.

Founding Cohort Distinction

A designation no future cohort can claim. You trusted the vision before there was proof.

Program Faculty

Designed & Led by
Dr. Kimberly Honnick

Kimberly Honnick, Ed.D.

Founding Senior Faculty & Program Architect · Bo Knowz Learning LLC

Dr. Kimberly Honnick is the Founder, CEO, and Chief Vision Officer of Bo Knowz Learning, LLC, and the creator of the ELEVATE Method™ that powers the ASCEND Leadership Lab. With more than 30 years of experience in education, her dynamic career spans public school systems and Head Start programs, where she has served as a teacher, administrator, and nationally recognized thought leader.

Dr. Honnick is widely respected for her leadership in curriculum and instructional design, with a strong emphasis on Social-Emotional Learning. She develops innovative units of study and authors books that create impactful learning experiences for both students and educators. Her areas of expertise include leadership, special education, student support services, SEL, educational technology, and personalized and blended learning models.

A passionate advocate for developing future educators and leaders, Dr. Honnick empowers schools and communities through job-embedded professional learning, coaching, and capacity-building leadership. Her work is anchored in equity, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to excellence.

Dr. Honnick received Learning Forward's Principal as Leader of Professional Learning Scholarship and was named one of the nation's Top 100 Innovative Educational Leaders by the Global Forum for Education. She serves on the Advisory Board for the Transformative Leadership Program at Pace University's Lubin School of Business.

The ASCEND Leadership Lab curriculum, methodology, and program design are the intellectual property of Dr. Honnick and Bo Knowz Learning, LLC. Head Start East is proud to present this program in partnership with Dr. Honnick as Founding Senior Faculty and Program Architect.

Founder & CEO, Bo Knowz Learning LLC

Partner with ASCEND

Sponsorship Opportunities

Invest in the Future of Early Childhood Leadership

ASCEND participants are agency-level decision makers, the people who purchase curriculum, technology, services, and professional development. Sponsors gain 18 months of sustained visibility with this audience, not just a booth at a conference.

We offer tiered sponsorship packages and exclusive a la carte opportunities including welcome kits, guest speaker series, scholarship funding, and event sponsorships at our in-person intensives.

Request the Sponsorship Prospectus

Visionary

Founding Presenting Sponsor

Premier Tier

Architect

Core Program Partner

Mid Tier

Champion

Supporting Partner

Entry Tier

A La Carte

Experiential & In-Kind Opportunities

Custom

ASCEND Leadership Lab A.L.L. In. Rise with Purpose. Lead with Clarity.

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This Is Not a TraditionalProfessional Development Program