Visionary Leadership Unleashed: Strategic Planning for Secondary Schools

Wednesday, March 12, 2025
6:00 - 7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

Facilitated by Marco Clark, EdD - President, Holy Cross College (Notre Dame, IN)

Audience: Secondary School Boards

Visionary strategic planning involves creating a bold, long-term vision that aligns with your school's mission, inspires a broad array of stakeholders, and is rooted in your Catholic identity. Done effectively, it requires identifying emerging trends, understanding community needs, and setting ambitious yet achievable goals. This process prioritizes innovation, leveraging resources creatively, and building partnerships to maximize impact. It also calls for skilled change leadership strategies and an entrepreneurial mindset by the school leader and the Board. Effective visionary planning also incorporates flexibility, allowing your school to adapt to changing circumstances while staying true to its core mission and distinctive purpose. Rooted in your Catholic identity and by fostering collaboration, engaging diverse perspectives, and having a clear understanding of your core mission, identity, and purpose, Catholic schools can craft strategies that drive transformational change. Dr. Clark will be joined by a seasoned group of Catholic educational leaders for this session. Collectively they will share their experiences and applied principles of visionary strategic planning in use today.

About Dr. Clark:

Dr. Marco Clark is in his 35th year as a Catholic educator, 27 of which he served alongside the Brothers of Holy Cross as a high school principal, president, executive director, and college president. After ministering in the Archdiocese of Washington for 31 years at DeMatha Catholic High School and Bishop McNamara High School, Dr. Clark held the position of executive director of the Holy Cross Institute at St. Edward’s University (TX), providing leadership support for the 120 Holy Cross schools around the world by conducting research, publishing resources, and delivering programs to ensure their Holy Cross mission, identity, and educational charism. In 2022 he was appointed as the first lay president in the history of Holy Cross College at Notre Dame. A Creighton University graduate in the Educational Doctoral program, Dr. Clark's areas of expertise are leadership, governance, and succession planning.