Featured Courageous Leader:

Leslie Valmonte
Founder and AI-Human Systems Architect of Bridge5D

August 27, 2026, 12:00p – 1:00p PT

Please join us for the first virtual, no-cost professional learning engagement of the Courageous Leadership Series for the upcoming academic year!

Designed for people responsible for AI adoption—as well as those affected by AI decisions within their work, this session provides a professional forum for leaders at all levels, administrators, faculty, classified professionals, coordinators, counselors, workforce practitioners, employers, and nonprofit partners.

Courageous Leader and AI-Human Systems Architect Leslie Valmonte will demonstrate generative AI on a workplace-culture question in three actionable ways:

• AI as tool-builder: drafting a practical culture tool and process.
• AI as lens: researching a question, challenging assumptions, and creating a recurring prompt or reminder.
• AI as voice: adapting one truth for a leader, a team, and a meeting while the human retains authorship and accountability.

Participants will receive the Culture Check Protocol and Four Ways Practice Map to begin leveraging AI to address their culture of work. No prior AI experience is required.

Leslie Valmonte is the Founder and AI-Human Systems Architect of Bridge5D, where she helps education and workforce organizations navigate AI as both a technological shift and a human systems transition. Her work integrates AI strategy, organizational culture, equity, professional learning, and systems change, grounded in the belief that technology should deepen human agency.

As Project Director of AI Initiatives for the Inland Empire Desert Regional Consortium, Leslie leads the AI Exchange, a regional community of practice helping colleges and partners build practical, responsible, and human-centered AI capacity. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience in education and workforce development, she helps leaders move beyond AI adoption toward the judgment, shared responsibility, and courage needed to shape what comes next.

“AI amplifies the culture already in the room. Culture moves from person-to-person, through our everyday choices and interactions. Each of us helps create the conditions others experience at work—and AI will scale what we choose to normalize.”

UC Berkeley’s CCASN Courageous Leadership Series is a learning and leading network designed by leaders who are courageously committed to dismantling systemic inequities inherent in public school structures. Courageous Leaders radically embody and demonstrate the following values of Robert Greenleaf’s Tenets of Servant Leadership:

• Encouragement — Servant leaders inspire their teams by offering encouragement and support. They celebrate successes, acknowledge achievements, and motivate team members to reach their full potential
• Collaboration — A servant leader fosters a collaborative work environment by encouraging open communication, teamwork, and shared decision-making
• Stewardship — Servant leaders take responsibility for the well-being of their team members and the organization as a whole. They act ethically and responsibly in all aspects of their leadership role
• Adaptability — Servant leaders embrace change and are willing to adjust their approach as needed to meet new challenges or seize opportunities

As a UC Berkeley Professional Development Provider (UCBPDP), we work to steward authentic, trusting partnerships at the intersections of research, practice, policy, and participatory community engagement, through which we are committed to modeling the practice of Courageous Leadership.