Residential Program – Academic Leadership Institute

Residential Program

ALI 2023 group photo

The 2027 Academic Leadership Institute Residential Program will be held in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

The application period for the 2027 Academic Leadership Program will open on Monday, October 12, 2026. You can submit your application HERE!

The Academic Leadership Institute is a collaboration between Earl Lewis, Founding Director of the Center for Social Solutions at the University of Michigan, and Dwight A. McBride, Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Equity and Senior Advisor to the Chancellor at Washington University in St. Louis. The Residential Program is for rising leaders on track to becoming presidents and provosts, currently working in the academy as a dean, vice provost, vice president, leader of a comprehensive academic institute, or an equivalent level administrative position. The Residential Program achieves the following goals: 

  • Create a space in which all aspects of diversity, equity, access, opportunity, and inclusion are explored.
  • Build a space of affirmation in which participants can move quickly to a place of professional intimacy and collaboration around shared values and vision for higher education.
  • Provide a safe space for sharing fears, challenges, successes, hopes, and ambitions.
  • Spark a leadership movement that centers on talent cultivation, networking, and sourcing.
  • Initiate a space for career development and for survival.
  • Generate a shared vision for transforming higher education and developing individuals who are capable of making this change.
  • Develop leaders who will shape the future of American democracy.
  • Build a network of academic leaders prepared to foster educational opportunities for all, irrespective of background.
  • This network of leaders will be a go-to for every search firm and institutional committee.
  • Build a cadre of mentors.
  • Work not just to elevate individuals, but to transform institutions. 

At our two curriculum planning meetings held at Emory University and the University of Michigan in 2019, we discussed the myriad of issues that face administrative leaders of color, in particular the number of institutional barriers that make it challenging to create change at colleges and universities. We noted that when taking on leadership roles, administrators of color must have a unique understanding of how change happens within institutions of higher education and at the same time, naming and navigating barriers to change.

The curriculum of the ALI will include a focus on the following broad content areas that are critical for aspiring university leaders, particularly presidents and provosts, to understand and manage:

  • Institutional change and transformation
  • Personal identity vs. institutional identity
  • Institutional/organizational culture
  • Best practices for self-care
  • Business and finance
  • Development and fundraising
  • Governance (Board, Senates)
  • The Search Process (Preparation, Contract Negotiations)
  • Academic enterprise
  • General Counsel
  • Crisis Management