An Advocate for Others

After over a decade of leadership at the helm of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD), Dr. Edward Leach is retiring as executive director.

An assistant professor of practice in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, Leach has spent more than 35 years in higher education, working with hundreds of community college professionals to learn and spread best practices across the globe.

Dr. Edward LeachNISOD offers professional development for community and technical college staff, faculty, and leadership. When Leach looks back at his time as NISOD’s executive director, he is most proud of expanding and stabilizing the organization, increasing its staff of three to eight. When NISOD first began in 1978, 51 colleges were members. It is now an organization of over 500 members, who gather together each May in Austin for a conference.

Yearly conference participation has grown from 152 attendees to over 2,200. At these gatherings, members share ideas and build strategies to address barriers. The conference also gives out NISOD Excellence Awards to individuals nominated by the colleges in acknowledgement of their extraordinary accomplishments, and the NISOD Leadership Award, recognizing one person for their vision and strategy.

“We work on the conference all year long, and seeing it come together, the smiling faces and people enjoying their time at the conference, seeing folks being recognized as award recipients and receiving well-deserved praise from friends, family, and colleagues, it’s such a joyous occasion,” says Leach. “That’s what I’ll miss the most.”

Before NISOD, Leach worked as vice president at the League for Innovation in the Community College. He attended UT’s former Community College Leadership Program, where he met several colleagues he remains in contact with today. One of them was Dr. Mark David Milliron, who is president and CEO of National University in San Diego.

“Ed is real people. He absolutely cares about other folks,” says Milliron. “No matter what’s happening, he’ll follow up. When things are up, he’ll call and say congratulations. When it’s down, he’ll call and check in. He’s just a good human being.”