Kawai Lai
Kawai Lai is a designer and facilitator who partners with leaders to navigate complexity and plan for the future. She brings an equity lens, deep education expertise, and agile design principles to every engagement. With Eric Hudson, she co-founded RE:Collective, a team of skilled facilitators who guide leadership teams through pivotal moments of realignment, renewal, and reinvention. In addition to her work with Re:Collective, Kawai reimagines inclusive ways of working with August Public and co-authored The New Team Habits (©2020), a practical guide for building stronger team practices. Previously, Kawai co-founded VizLit to unleash the visual mind of every learner, served as Vice President of Innovation at NAIS, where she launched its strategic planning practice and explored trends shaping the future of education, and helped grow the edtech startup Education Elements. She began her career in change and technology at Deloitte Consulting. Kawai has served as a trustee on the boards of several independent schools and currently serves on the advisory boards of Defy Ventures and TeachAAPI. She holds an MBA from UC Berkeley and a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from SMU.
Current Workshops
Leading from the Middle: Managing Up, Down, and Across
This program is designed for leaders who want to navigate these complexities with greater confidence and clarity learning with and from a community of practitioners. Together, we’ll tackle the challenges that come with making tough decisions, leading effective meetings, supervising your peers, and giving feedback that builds rather than erodes trust.