BERKELEY, Calif. – Dr. Abdelhalim Deifalla was almost too late.
After being nominated to attend the Executive Leadership Academy at the University of California at Berkeley after the deadline and less than a week before the event, he was granted acceptance and a few days later made the 18-hour journey from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia to this renowned Northern California college town.
Deifalla, vice dean of academic affairs and professor of anatomy in the College of Medicine and Medical Sciences at Arabian Gulf University, brought to 49 the number of fellows in the largest and most diverse class of attendees in the exclusive program’s seven-year history.
“This academy is important as a leadership program for the skills needed on issues such as diversity,” said Deifalla.
Academy attendees aspire to the top ranks of higher education and see ELA as a vehicle to achieving that goal. This year’s session, which began Monday and ends Friday, is an intellectual boot camp designed to prepare emerging and seasoned scholars and administrators to lead in multicultural settings at colleges and universities across the nation and abroad.
Among the ranks are several newly appointed leaders to top positions such as Grande Lum, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Menlo College, and Dr. Otto H. Chang, president of the University of the West. Both are in their first month in their new roles at California schools.
The brainchild of Josefina Baltodano – former president of Wisconsin’s Marian University, a respected diversity expert and an influential career coach – ELA is housed in the Center for Studies in Higher Education in the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC-Berkeley. This year’s group will join 272 academy alums, many of whom have been promoted as administrators at levels as high as provosts, presidents and chancellors since attending the academy.
