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Excellence in Leadership Program launches 25th cohort of CU Boulder faculty, staff

The Office of Faculty Affairs and Human Resources are pleased to announce the newest CU Boulder fellows selected for the CU Excellence in Leadership Program (ELP), hosted by the CU system Employee Services office. Now in its 25th year, the program brings together high-performing faculty and staff from across the four CU campuses and system office to enhance their leadership potential.

Excellence in Leadership Program participants

Please join us in congratulating the 14 faculty and staff selected for the 2025–26 cohort:  

  • Alaa Ahmed, Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Professor, Mechanical Engineering
  • Elina Day, Assistant Dean of Budget & Finance, College of Communication, Media, Design & Information
  • Phil Fernbach, Chair and Professor, Marketing
  • Stephanie Gillin, Associate Dean for Administration & Finance, Leeds School of Business
  • Jennifer Ho, Director, Center for Humanities & the Arts and Professor, Ethnic Studies
  • Bri-Mathias Hodge, Associate Chair and Professor, Electrical, Computing & Energy Engineering
  • Meg Hohnholt, Assistant Director of Design & Construction, Infrastructure & Resilience
  • Dejun “Tony” Kong, Program Director of the Organizational, Leadership & Information Analytics PhD and Professor, Organizational Leadership & Information Analytics
  • Suzanne Magnanini, Chair and Associate Professor, French & Italian
  • Lauren Petersen, Executive Assistant to the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives, Office of the Chancellor
  • Stacey Schulte, Chair and Teaching Professor, Environmental Design
  • Bryan Semaan, Chair and Associate Professor, Information Science
  • Kellen Short, Director of Executive Communications, Strategic Relations and Communications
  • Regina Tirella, Senior Director of Support and Safety Measures & Deputy Title IX Coordinator, Office of Institutional Equity & Compliance 

Over the coming academic year, these fellows will take part in monthly sessions with senior campus leaders and with the broader ELP cohort. Through these experiences, they will gain greater understanding of how CU functions as an organization, build community with other campus leaders and improve their leadership capabilities within our diverse university environment. 

More than 200 CU Boulder faculty and staff have taken part in this esteemed program, made possible through the support of the provost and the senior vice chancellor for operations. Merinda McLure, faculty director of academic leadership development in the Office of Faculty Affairs, and Kristin Martina, organizational development consultant with Campus Human Resources, serve as CU Boulder liaisons for the ELP. 

Reflecting on her experience as a 2024–25 fellow, dean and vice provost of undergraduate education Erika Randall shared: 

“ELP was more than a leadership program—it was an affirmation of commitment to the bigger picture of my work—to create community, to support students, to maximize my personal capacity and to embrace gratitude, recognition, clarity and joy as tools for team capacity building. Most importantly, it placed myself among and within a constellation of brilliant and diverse humans and leaders, learning from one another as we challenged ourselves to stay playful and committed to caring for staff, faculty, students and ourselves.”

Building on that perspective, McLure added: 

“The ELP provides fellows with a unique opportunity to forge relationships with peers and senior leaders across our CU institutions. Participants consistently share how the program broadens their understanding of the CU system as a whole and underscores the impact of strong leadership on the success of each campus.” 

These reflections highlight the value of the Excellence in Leadership Program and set high expectations for the incoming 2025–26 cohort, who are poised to build on their leadership skills to make a greater impact at CU Boulder.

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