Next Generation Leadership Academy Graduates First Class
June 23, 2006
Thirty-nine teachers and assistant principals from Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico counties and the city of Richmond received certificates June 21 for completing the Next Generation Leadership Academy at the University of Richmond.
Before the ceremony, they joined 30 principals, who have been serving as colleague mentors during the Next Generation program, in discussions of leadership issues in education centered on Barbara Kellerman’s book “Bad Leadership.”
Kellerman, research director of the Center for Public Leadership and lecturer in public policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, was on hand to make a speech and field some questions. All of yesterday’s sessions were held in the Marriott West at Innsbrook.
The teachers and administrators met numerous times over the nine-month program, including two days of case studies, four theoretical sessions taught by Jepson School of Leadership Studies faculty and four applied sessions taught by school division representatives.
The Jepson School’s Thomas J. Shields, the center’s director, said one of the greatest benefits of the program was seeing the four school divisions getting together and seeing that they all had similar issues. “It was an opportunity to share across divisional lines. It was inspiring to see how they shared things.”
The State Council of Higher Education awarded the university a $102,653 grant to help implement the innovative program, which began in September.