This research afforded three female PK-12 educational leaders space in which to examine, deconstruct, reflect, and build upon sensemaking to understand how they led their campus out of a crisis, how healing from a crisis happened for the leader, and how they led their school community. Three portraits were used to highlight these female PK-12 educational leaders' experiences to examine contexts, narrative, practices, and consequences of crisis leadership. The research used two interconnected theoretical frames: feminist standpoint theory (Harding, 1996) and sensemaking (Weick, 1993; 2009). Instead of accepting the adage that effective crisis female leadership can be explained by the traditional lens of a leader's tactile and relational approaches to preparedness and response (Weeks et al., 2013), a portraiture methodology was used (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997) to illuminate the authenticity of the leaders' actions and goodness that arose out of lived crisis realities of three female PK-12 educational leaders as they led through crises. The purpose of this study was to explore the intersection of sensemaking, crisis leadership, and leadership authenticity as shared through stories and conversations of three female PK-12 educational leaders. The secondary purpose of the study was to expand upon the space within a privileged setting that has been historically viewed through a male perspective by examining the impact of posttraumatic growth leadership development in women leading through a crisis. The intended audience for this research is educational leaders, specifically female leaders and leadership preparation program faculty. The portraits presented in this study highlighted the strengths and moral/spiritual compasses these female leaders used to navigate crises. Although Liberty, Karina, and Bella faced many challenges during their crises, they faced them with courage--they used different strategies to overcome the crises with the support of the people in their lives, and they displayed resilient leadership skills in performing their duties as a leader. Most leaders deal with crises at some point in their career. This research is significant in that it may help to prevent the isolation that is often felt by leaders dealing with crises. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]