BERKELEY, Calif. – Information-packed sessions on attributes and skills essential for successfully navigating higher education as a top administrator filled the first day of the Executive Leadership Academy at the University of California, Berkeley.
This year’s five-day gathering, which began Monday, boasts its largest cohort among the 11 since it began nearly a decade ago. Fifty-five men and women from across the nation, primarily from underrepresented minority groups, were accepted into the exclusive program housed in the university’s Center for Studies in Higher Education in the Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy.
The program – designed to increase diversity in the upper echelons of campus leadership and to provide a turbocharged boost to the fellows’ ascent to chancellor, provost and president posts – is extensive and intensive.
Fellows are scheduled to participate in 28 training and development sessions that run the gamut of what is needed to effectively lead an institution, from legislative issues and campus politics to budget and financial resource management. The interactive sessions are facilitated by key leaders within the UC system and from colleges and universities elsewhere in the state and nation.
The opening day emphasized the big picture, with sessions delving into a demographic and statistical overview of the American college scene president presented by Dr. Gailda Pitre Davis, director of ACE Leadership at the American Council on Education; successfully navigating the higher ed landscape, featuring Dr. Dale Jones, chancellor of Penn State Wilkes-Barre; leadership lessons for various types of institutions by Dr. Fred Wood, chancellor of the Contra Costa Community College District; and strategies for addressing workplace conflict facilitated by Dr. Elnora Webb, CEO of Signature Solutions, Corporate Results and president emerita of Laney College.
Many of the week’s presenters, including Jones and Wood, are former ELA fellows.
Recounting how he spent $19,000 participating in development programs as he climbed the leadership dollar, Jones said it’s an investment that he believed would pay off.
