Heidi Pecoraro, director of NDSU’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, and Mike Ostlie, NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center director, have been selected for the 19th class of the LEAD21 program. The leadership program aims to develop leaders in land-grant institutions and their strategic partners who link research, academics and extension for leadership roles at colleges and universities across the nation.
“Our land-grant systems continue to evolve to better address society’s needs,” said Cynda Clary, LEAD21 board of directors chair and associate dean for the Ferguson College of Agriculture at Oklahoma State University. “With each challenge and opportunity, prepared leaders are needed to step up and move us forward. LEAD21 helps build this leadership capacity within and across institutions.”
“Leadership development and training is important to the long-term success of our organization,” said Greg Lardy, vice president for Agricultural Affairs at NDSU. “We are excited for these individuals to further their careers and service to NDSU through this opportunity.”
“We are honored to support the aspirations of land-grant leaders from across the country,” said Rochelle Sapp, LEAD21 program director and leadership development specialist in the Office of Learning and Organizational Development at the University of Georgia. “With each successive class, we have seen the benefits of providing these leaders with opportunities to focus on their personal leadership skills, goals and style. As we’ve seen a tremendous shift in leadership over the past year, we have also been able to see the power of the LEAD21 alumni moving into these high-level leadership positions to create a lasting foundation of strong leaders for the land-grant system.”
LEAD21 provides an immersive professional development program for academic leaders from the land-grant system. Working in regular small group meetings, combined with three week-long immersive sessions, the participants will learn effective leadership skills for increasingly complex higher education environments as well as strategies for influencing institutional transformation in their current and future leadership positions.
The LEAD21 program is targeted at faculty specialists, program and team leaders, research station and center directors, district and regional directors, department heads and chairs and others in land-grant universities’ colleges of agricultural, environmental, and human sciences and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
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