Two paths. The same standards. Different language and structure.
Wanakee organizes her work around the audience in the room. Switch the path below to see only what applies to you.
Five areas of focused work for districts, schools, and education leaders strengthening school climate, student belonging, safety, and the partnerships that sustain student success.
School Climate & Belonging Strategy
Wanakee partners with district and school leaders to treat school climate as measurable Tier 1 infrastructure rather than a series of one-time events. She helps teams design and embed systems of belonging across the school year and align them with attendance, behavior, and engagement data, so connectedness becomes consistent practice rather than seasonal effort. Her work strengthens the relational conditions that climate and culture surveys measure and that drive student engagement, educator morale, and school-wide culture.
The problem
Climate work is treated as one-time events disconnected from attendance, behavior, and engagement data.
What she builds
Systems of belonging embedded across the school year, aligned to the data that already drives decisions.
The outcome
Consistent practice that strengthens student engagement, educator morale, and school-wide culture.
Relationship-Based Safety & Student Voice
Wanakee strengthens the relational layer of student safety that formal systems rely on but cannot manufacture: trusted-adult relationships, adult awareness, student voice, and clear pathways for concerns to reach the right supports. She helps schools build cultures in which students are known and adults are positioned to notice early indicators, reinforcing existing reporting and intervention structures with the human conditions that make them effective. This is protective infrastructure that strengthens early intervention, student trust, and connectedness.
The problem
Reporting and intervention systems exist, but the trusted-adult conditions that make them effective are missing.
What she builds
Cultures where students are known, voice is heard, and concerns reach the right supports.
The outcome
Stronger early intervention, student trust, and protective connectedness.
School-Community Partnership Development
Wanakee helps districts and schools build coordinated partnership infrastructure in place of a patchwork of disconnected programs. She supports leaders in identifying, onboarding, and activating community organizations, higher education partners, businesses, and families, aligning each to defined student and family needs and to a clear role within the school's system of support. Her approach moves community engagement from episodic events toward an accountable, sustainable network of wraparound support.
The problem
Community engagement happens in episodic events, with partners unsure of their role in the school's system of support.
What she builds
Onboarding, activation, and alignment of community, higher education, business, and family partners to defined needs.
The outcome
An accountable, sustainable network of wraparound support around students and families.
Stakeholder Facilitation & Team Building
Wanakee facilitates professional development and strategic planning for administrators, educators, school teams, and community partners. Her sessions build the adult conditions that implementation depends on: trust, shared language, role clarity, and aligned priorities. She helps teams move initiatives from compliance and documentation toward consistent, lived practice, strengthening staff cohesion and readiness to carry the work forward.
The problem
Initiatives stall at compliance and documentation, never reaching consistent, lived practice.
What she builds
Facilitated professional development and strategic planning that build trust, shared language, and role clarity.
The outcome
Teams that carry the work forward with cohesion and readiness.
Program Design & Implementation Support
Wanakee translates district and school priorities into structured, implementable programs. She designs leadership pipelines, school-based workshops, mentorship and volunteer structures, and family and community engagement initiatives, each with rollout plans that define roles, sequencing, and measures of follow-through. Her emphasis on fidelity and sustainability produces programs a school team can implement, monitor, and maintain without dependence on any single person.
The problem
Priorities sit on paper, with no clear rollout, roles, sequencing, or measures of follow-through.
What she builds
Leadership pipelines, workshops, mentorship and volunteer structures, and family and community engagement initiatives with full rollout plans.
The outcome
Programs a team can implement, monitor, and maintain without dependence on any single person.
Signature workshops and keynotes.
Wanakee is available for keynotes, workshops, professional development, panels, retreats, and youth experiences. Her sessions move rooms from buzzwords to practice and leave staff and students with a next step they can carry forward.
Signature workshops & program experience
- Beyond the Calendar: Belonging as a Catalyst for Attendance, Engagement, and Retention
- Beyond the Buzzwords: Reimagining DEI as Practice, Not Performance
- Beyond the Buzzword: The Truth and Lies About Restorative Justice
- School Culture and Team-Building Professional Development
- School-Community Partnership Strategy
- Relationship-Based Safety and Student Voice Consulting
- Community Partner Onboarding and Readiness Support
- Restorative Practices and Peace Circles
- Student Leadership and Mentorship Program Design
- Higher Education to High School Student Voice Partnerships
- Student Voice and Narrative Workshops
- Student-Led Media and Narrative Platform Development
- Volunteer Pipeline Development
- Intergenerational and Family Engagement Initiatives
Book a consultation, or invite Wanakee to speak.
District-respected, substantive, and built to convert conversation into the next structured step.