Welcome to the Academic Leadership Institute

The Academic Leadership Institute, founded by Dr. Earl Lewis and Dr. Dwight A. McBride, in a partnership between the University of Michigan and Washington University, aims to increase the representation of rising leaders committed to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), including faculty of color, on track to becoming future presidents and provosts.

A small cohort of promising rising academic leaders was selected to participate in the inaugural 2021 Residential Program. 

While most programs for higher education leadership focus on the skills required of a leader, the Academic Leadership Institute (ALI) goes beyond that to talk about the experience of being a leader within the academy from an individual perspective. Each day’s curriculum is explicitly organized around identity as it relates to the various streams of university business: the sense of self as a leader, in relation to institutional frameworks, in relation to the team, and in relation to the community and the public. The institute will be the first major professional development event of its kind to have an explicit focus on DEI, and the first to aim to equip leaders to change their institutions. In addition, the nature and size of the program allows its scope to be tailored to the expectations of its participants, providing a personalized five-day course guided by experienced university and college leaders.

Through participation in the ALI, attendees will benefit from:

• Access to a generation of proven leaders that can speak to core principles of leadership in higher education.
• Intense, close relationships with colleagues to provide an overall support network for the rest of their careers.
• Hands-on assistance from leading search consultants.
• A certificate testifying to their completion of the program.
• Access to mentoring and coaching post-institute.