ABOUT LEAP

Program Focus | Achieving Success | Campus Support | Program Approach | LEAP Brochure

This is an exciting time for the Leadership Education for Advancement and Promotion (LEAP) Project. After five years of being supported by a National Science Foundation Advance Institutional Transformation Award, LEAP in now in the process of being institutionalized as a campus program housed in Faculty Affairs. In fact, Carole Capsalis, who will continue her role as program manager, now has an office over in Regent. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Provost DiStefano and Associate Vice Chancellor Jeff Cox for their encouragement, enduring support, and willingness to commit to the long term.

When we began the LEAP program we had a vision that providing opportunities to the faculty to develop new skills and network would help them to succeed and would help the campus by developing a pool of people better able to lead. Our understanding of institutional change was pretty basic but we did believe that to change the institution as a whole the focus needed to be on making the institution better for everyone by involving everyone in our programs. Later the model evolved to understand that change needed to occur at multiple levels and using multiple levers. So, we expanded the range of LEAP workshops and began to work on broader issues. While it is always difficult to attribute any particular change to a particular action we are sure that the discussions that the LEAP program helped seed have helped make this institution more aware of the many issues that affect faculty. This work is going to continue in LEAP's new home – and I am looking forward to seeing where what we have begun will go.

Personally, I am looking forward to the opportunity to become a Faculty Director in the Provost's office where I will be working to address one of the needs identified through the LEAP project. I will be developing a program to address the needs and concerns of associate professors – please let me know of any ideas you have that will help.

Program Focus

A primary focus of the program is developing a cadre of effective leaders who will move both the institution and their particular fields of expertise forward.

Achieving Success

The goal is to build collegiality and thereby to improve specifically the retention of women in science and engineering disciplines. We would like to stress however that this program is open to faculty members of any gender and discipline.

Campus Support

• The University President and UCB Chancellor both expressed strong support for the LEAP program and are both very committed to developing a pool of faculty from which the future leaders of the university can be drawn. Indeed, both have led by example, taking active roles as faculty coaches.
• UCB is a member of the National Council on Competitiveness, which has been selected to partner with several federal agencies on a new initiative to increase the participation of women and minorities in science and engineering.
• The campus administration has continually demonstrated a commitment to the goal of developing a faculty which is representative of society as a whole in its makeup. 

Program Approach

• Identify potential leaders from incoming and existing faculty, develop their leadership abilities and provide them with opportunities to apply those skills at the highest level of the university's administration.
• Provide coaching and team building skills to existing faculty members through training and supervised application.
• Provide faculty with skills they will model through their behavior in everyday interactions for members of their own departments.