About the Center

Mission Statement:

Center for Leadership Development Fact Sheet

Center Capacities, Services, and Products

Strengths:

AED brings to its leadership development work a global platform of networks and resources; institutional stability; intermediary capacity and experience managing competitions; skill at facilitation and conflict mediation; and a passionate commitment to integrity, quality, and impact.

Current Projects:

Current projects include the New Voices National Fellowship Program, funded by the Ford Foundation, which supports emerging leaders in innovative human rights work; the Kellogg Southern Africa Leadership Program, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which supports leaders in seven countries in Southern Africa through leadership workshops and educational fellowships; and a study of leadership development opportunities, strategies, and resources that are applicable to the youth sector. The latter initiative is funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies and has resulted in a report with recommendations to philanthropy for a broad range of new investments in youth as leaders and in the leaders who serve youth.

Center Publications:

A Future of Leadcership Development

A Short Supplement to A Future of Leadership Development (NEW)

Mentoring the Next Generation of Nonprofit Leaders:  A Practical Guide for Managers

Nonprofit Leadership Development:  A Select Annotated Bibliography

A Short Supplement to Nonprofit Leadership Development: An Annotated Bibliography (NEW)

Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Public Service: Where Do We Go From Here?\

New Voices National Fellowship Program

AED has now provided intensive leadership development opportunities and a support system for 142 Fellows spread throughout the United States. Three out of four of the Fellows are women. Five out of six are people of color (with a balance across racial, ethnic, and cultural lines).  One in six is LGBT. One in fifteen has a disability. And one in five is an immigrant to the United States. We don’t know of any leadership program in the country that has achieved such a deep level of diversity that continues to contribute to rich dialogue, collaboration, and solidarity across movements.

The Fellows have worked in over 50 communities and on over 100 specific issues related to social, economic, political, environmental, and reproductive justice. They have strengthened their organizations by leading advocacy campaigns, implementing demonstration projects, winning victories in court, organizing communities, building networks, creating leadership development and popular education programs, and other strategies to press for change. They have also raised money, advocated for internal reforms within their sponsoring organizations, and taken some of the pressure off of exhausted executive directors, who are generally of the Baby Boom generation. The Fellows are a courageous group, working at the front lines of struggles for opportunity, equity, and dignity. They have dramatically improved the lives of many people, through a host of commitments and methodologies.

The New Voices program strikes a balance between supporting individual leadership development and effectiveness, building the capacity of the Fellows’ sponsoring nonprofits, pressing for systemic change, strengthening communities and entire fields of work, and exploring the issues and intersections associated with identity, diversity, privilege and indifference.

THE LIST OF OVER 100 ISSUES THAT HAVE BEEN TACKLED BY NEW VOICES FELLOWS AND ALUMNI

Kellogg Southern Africa Leadership (KSAL) Program

Supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) Program in Africa, KSAL enhances the skills and vision of Southern African leaders from Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe through leadership workshops and academic fellowships. For over ten years, KSAL has developed a broad range of programs in the WKKF theme areas of leadership and skills development, economic opportunity, health and well-being, and civic participation.

The current KSAL programs include:

• Study Grants Fellowship Program for undergraduate, masters, and doctoral fellows studying predominantly in Southern Africa in areas ranging from entrepreneurship to dairy science;
• Dissertation Awards Program, supporting the completion of masters and doctoral research by graduate students in critical subjects such as food production and resource management;
• Regional Enhancement, Advocacy, and Professional Program (REAP) for senior-level women leaders in the region furthering their policy leadership through research leading to a graduate degree and related activities in subjects such as poverty alleviation;
• Regional Institutional Capacity (RICap) Program for enhancing the organizational capacity of current and future program partners of WKKF;
• TRACER knowledgebase, compiling information and leadership case studies from the KSAL alumni, fellows, and awardees.

The KSAL programs are carried out in conjunction with leadership and reintegration workshops, emphasizing African leadership values, opportunities in the 21 st Century global economy, indigenous knowledge, thought leadership, and “ploughback” to home communities and communities of practice. This combination helps to both ensure success of fellows and awardees in their academic programs, as well as promote a commitment to continued leadership in their communities.

Contact: Bonnie Barhyte, Center Director or Ken Williams, Senior Techical Advisor

The center is part of the Academy for Educational Development.