The Inaugural Leadership Academy is a new professional development program for senior leaders at ETSU. The goal of the academy is to increase the leadership skills of ETSU’s faculty and staff so that they can better support and cultivate the strengths of both their peers and the students they lead.
“What inspired the creation of the Leadership Academy was just the need for enhancing professional development opportunities for people that are already leading things but might not have had the opportunity to be trained in leadership to do that work,” said Robert Pack, executive vice provost.
The academy will begin Friday, Sept. 5, and will follow the academic year. The first meeting will be with President Noland, who will share his perspective on leadership as well as his own leadership journey. The program is designed to be intensive, incorporating a strategic project led by members that will ultimately support the mission of ETSU.
“We’ve seen a couple of leadership programs pop up in different areas. We’ve had an ETSU Health Leaders Academy for three years and the College of Business and Technology has its own leadership program as well. But this is something university-wide,” Pack said.
The members of the academy include faculty and staff from several departments. Eight members were selected by the president and provost from a highly competitive nominee pool. This year’s members will include Jamie Price, Allie Chroust, Jill Hayter, O.J. Early, William Cate, Katherine C. Hall, Steph Frye-Clark and Scott Jeffress.
While the leadership academy is for ETSU’s faculty and staff, Pack added that a large part of the program’s importance will be through the ways that improving leadership is going to benefit campus and students in the long run.
“Everything we do is on behalf of the students ultimately. And I mean that goes all the way from just teaching to how we run things, but also all the way out to research and service,” he said. “Everything that we do here is designed to improve the opportunities for students. Ultimately, that’s the whole purpose of the institution.”
