In 2001, the Educational Leadership program first sponsored the Assistant Principals and Aspiring School Leaders Conference in the LBJ Student Center at the Texas State University – San Marcos campus.

Utilizing research, Dr. Marla McGhee, the conference pioneer, discovered that assistant principals were likely to enter the field and quickly become socialized into patterns of practice that were not productive to school improvement. Through a “labor of love,” the conference was initially created to provide practicing and aspiring campus leaders an opportunity for professional growth, nurturing, and networking.

Now, in its twelfth year, the conference has evolved to be inclusive of community leaders, teacher leaders, high school students, and emerging scholars. In representation of this change in the conference’s direction, the planning committee renamed it the Education and Community Leadership Conference.

Past Conference Keynotes