Alumni Leadership Academy to build skills, boost participation

By Kelvin Childs

Soon, a new initiative of the Board of Trustees — the Alumni Leadership Academy — will launch to boost alumni participation in campus life.

The pilot of the Academy starts in January in tandem with the spring 2025 semester, said Danette G. Howard, PhD (’97, B.A., summa cum laude), a Howard trustee who is leading the initiative. 

Although half of the Board of Trustees’ members are required to be Howard alumni, they are always seeking more ways to engage. The goal of the Academy is to provide a way to develop and work on their leadership skills, Howard said.

During the semester, the cohort of 20 to 50 Academy members will meet bi-monthly with the trustees. The members may also meet with President Ben Vinson, PhD, and other executive leaders of the University, giving them the opportunity to ask questions and share feedback with each other. The Academy cohort will also schedule “special opportunities” twice a year, coinciding with University events like Charter Day, Homecoming and Commencement.

The trustees concluded the Academy application period in November and will finish considering candidates by year’s end. From the applicant pool, the trustees are seeking alumni from each of the University’s 14 schools and colleges, as well as a cross-section of ages, graduation years, majors and geography.

About 100 people joined an Alumni Insight Call conducted October 30, Howard said, including a caller from South Africa, even though it was 2 a.m. where he was. The information session, moderated by Bilal Badruddin (’23, PhD), director of alumni relations, is on the Development and Alumni Relations’ YouTube page. Applications increased four-fold after that, Howard said. “We have been getting applications in from the moment we ended that call,” she said.

The Academy initiative is the third from the trustees aimed at improving the alumni experience, after the Trustee Candidate Identification Advisory Council (TCIAC) and the Board of Visitors program (BOV). “After we complete this first experience, we will certainly do some evaluation and assessment,” Howard said, looking at lessons learned, areas for improvement and things wanted in future cohorts.