VIRTUAL SUMMIT: Healing the Trauma of Activist Leadership

March 18, 19, 20, 2026

1 PM ET - 5 PM ET (Half-Days)

Facilitators:

Farah Tanis, LMSW

Dr. Dieudonne Jean Baptiste

Laura Brown-Rivera, LCSW

The Reconciliation Center in partnership with Restore Forward, are calling leaders to summit and curating a space for leaders to convene around the urgent topic: The Trauma of leadership and the high rates of morbidity and mortality among leaders on the margins.” We will examine what it means to work under relentless expectations and conditions inside and outside of our organizations and communities.

This virtual summit and convening will bring together directors from various demanding social justice, health, and healing fields, living under toxic conditions inside and outside of our organizations, clinics, and community settings. Too often, the ones in leadership positions are subjected to a lack of respect for their personhood and disregard for their grief, their fears, their pleasures, or their joys. They are often the most depressed, the most suppressed, the most accommodating, the most sacrificial, the most burdened, and saddled with the challenges of their organizations and their communities. Some go days without eating, showering, or even basic breaks throughout the work day. They feel guilty on vacation. They leave no out-of-the-office messages because they are never out of the office. They operate under constant guilt and the belief that if they put the work down, “they are abandoning someone or that someone could die.” There is a constant fear of failure. Leadership can be lonely, and there are so few trustworthy people to turn to in times of crisis. 

Who Is This Summit For:

• Executive Directors

• Organizers

• Faith Leaders

• Healthcare professionals

• Movement architects

• The strong ones who never rest

Day 1: The Biology of Burnout

The science of stress, trauma load, inflammation, and disease risk in leaders.

Day 2: The S.O.V.E.R.E.I.G.N.™ Map

How to assess, score, and interpret cumulative stress.

Day 3: Intervention & Culture Shift

Stabilization tools, conversations, and the launch of the Guardian Network.

The 4 Purposes of This Summit

1. Expose the Invisible Epidemic

To name how chronic stress, trauma load, sleep collapse, and inflammation are silently eroding leadership bodies.

2. Interrupt Sacrifice Culture

To dismantle the myth that exhaustion equals dedication.

3. Teach Early Detection

To introduce the S.O.V.E.R.E.I.G.N.™ stress mapping framework.

4. Seed a Guardian Network

To recruit and prepare the first wave of Certified

What You Will Learn (5 Concrete Outcomes)

1. How Elevated Cortisol Becomes Disease

You will understand:

·       How chronic stress alters immune function

·       How inflammation accelerates breakdown

·       Why burnout is biological, not emotional weakness

·       You will leave able to explain the physiology of collapse.

2.  How to Detect Red Flags Early

You will learn:

·       The 7–9 domains of stress load mapping

·       Sleep, inflammation, trauma, isolation, identity fusion indicators

·       How to spot “Breakdown Risk” before crisis

·       You will leave able to assess yourself and others.

3.  A 72-Hour Reset Protocol

You will walk away with:

•         Immediate stabilization practices

•         Nervous system regulation tools

•         Recovery prioritization framework

•         Boundary reset strategies

4. How to Have the Hard Conversation

You will learn:

•         How to say “I’m worried about you”

•         How to confront martyr patterns

•         How to interrupt denial

•         How to recommend stepping back without shame

•         You will leave with scripts and structure

5. How to Pay This Forward + Path to Certification

You will receive:

•         The roadmap to becoming a Certified Steward of Your Own Health™

•         Requirements for cohort enrollment

•         Practicum expectations

•         Timeline and early-access invitation

•         You will know how to become part of the prevention infrastructure.

Participants will learn strategies for shifting from control to interdependence, fostering mutual support, and shared responsibility. This includes understanding the value of collective effort and the importance of allowing others to fail and learn.