A small team of educators, advocates, and parents, building what we wished we'd had.
The Inclusive Leadership Lab is led by people who have sat on every side of the IEP table: as teachers, as building leaders, as state-level policy advocates, and as parents. Everything we build starts there.
Dr. Nikki Harding
Special-education outcomes do not improve through better paperwork. They improve through better-prepared educators.
We started the Lab because we spent two decades watching talented, committed educators struggle inside a system that was never fully designed to support them.
The IEP forms only got marginally better. The compliance requirements compounded every year. And the professional development remained generic while the compliance burden fell on educators without support.
The Lab exists to close that gap: not with another compliance tool, not with general coaching content repurposed for special education, but with something built specifically for this work, by people who know what it actually demands.
Built around the teacher in the room
Not around the compliance system surrounding them. The educator is the unit of change. Every product decision starts with what a teacher actually faces on a Tuesday afternoon.
Both sides of the table
Our leadership has sat as teachers, as directors, as state-level advocates, and as parents of students with IEPs. We bring everything we learned from each seat into what the Lab builds.
Practitioner-built, evidence-led
Our research-and-development is run by educators, for educators, designed to stay agile, unbiased, and rooted in what's actually changing in the field.
Why we built this, in her own words.
To the educator reading this,
I started this Lab because I spent two decades watching talented, committed educators struggle with a system that was never fully designed to develop them. The IEP forms got marginally better. The compliance requirements got more detailed. And with each update, the weight fell on the teachers while professional development stayed generic.
I also spent those years as the parent of a child with Down syndrome, sitting across the table from educators who were doing their absolute best with tools and preparation that were not equal to the task. I know what it feels like to need something better, from both seats.
The Inclusive Leadership Lab exists to close that gap. Not with another compliance tool. Not with general coaching content repurposed for special education. With something built specifically for this work, by people who know what it actually demands.
If you are a teacher, a coach, or a director trying to do right by the students in your care, this is built for you. We are grateful you are here.
One team. One question at the center of all of it: what does the educator in the room actually need?
Dr. Nikki Harding
Dr. Nikki Harding
Twenty-four years in special education: as a teacher, a building leader, a director, a public-policy advocate, and now as the founder of a company designed to transform the system failing the professionals she spent her career working alongside.
Her doctoral work focused on postsecondary outcomes, the promises of IDEA, and quality of life for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Her career has been defined by a single conviction: special-education outcomes do not improve through better paperwork. They improve through better-prepared educators and the leaders who know how to support them.
Nikki is also a parent of a child with Down syndrome. That experience is not background information. It is the reason this platform is built around the teacher in the room, not the compliance system surrounding them. She has sat on both sides of the IEP table and brought everything she learned from each seat into what the Lab builds.
Working On
Direct coaching with special-education directors and building leaders, facilitation of leadership-development programs, and the registered apprenticeship pathway, the first of its kind for special-education administration.
Dr. Stacy Hirt
Stacy brings more than 25 years in K-12 and higher education to how the Lab builds evidence-based, technology-informed leadership systems for districts and state agencies.
A former teacher, instructional coach, and district leader with deep expertise in responsible AI implementation, Stacy has led national research, technical assistance, and professional learning initiatives spanning special education, MTSS, instructional improvement, leadership development, and AI in education. She helps education leaders build sustainable, high-impact systems that support educators and improve outcomes for students.
At the Lab, Stacy leads strategic partnerships with school districts, state education agencies, professional associations, and other education organizations to expand the Lab's evidence-based leadership programs and solutions. She works across business development, professional learning, and product innovation to strengthen educational systems, build leadership capacity, and drive measurable outcomes for every student.
Spencer Wallace
Spencer leads how the Inclusive Leadership Lab shows up in the world, making sure the story is told as well as the work is done.
A previous founder in multiple technology startups, Spencer brings the brand and communications discipline of the tech world to a sector that has historically lacked it. The voice you hear from the Lab, in this notebook, on the podcast, in every email, is largely his.
He is also the spouse and parent of educators, and is passionate about serving others and creating a better space in the world. The Lab's mission isn't a new one for him; it is the one he was already living.
Brett Fenton
Brett Fenton spent over two decades in Kansas schools as a classroom teacher, an activities director, a building principal, and an educational technology trainer before joining the Inclusive Leadership Lab as Director of Professional Learning. He has worked in every seat that shapes whether a student with a disability actually gets what they need.
For eight years at Education Service Center Greenbush, Brett supported districts across the state as a school administrator and technology trainer, helping leaders build the instructional systems that allow educators to do their jobs well. That work made one thing clear: generic professional development does not move the needle. What changes outcomes is sustained, job-embedded learning that meets educators where they actually are.
At the Lab, Brett leads the design and delivery of professional learning experiences grounded in that conviction. He brings a practitioner’s fluency for what school leaders face on an ordinary Tuesday, and a systems thinker’s understanding of why so much PD fails to survive contact with that reality.
He is also a student. Brett is completing the Lab’s own Special Education Leadership Apprenticeship, because we build for educators we believe in, and we hold ourselves to the same standard.
If any of this sounds like the partner you've been looking for, let's talk.
We work with districts, cooperatives, and individual leaders who are tired of generic professional development and ready for something built specifically for this work. Initial consultations are direct, honest, and free.