SEC Academic Leadership Development Program Celebrates 10 Years

October 17, 2017

SEC ALDP participants discuss their in-basket learning exercise during the 2017 spring workshop at Mississippi State University.

By: Bryant Welbourne
SECU (Twitter: @TheSECU)

The SEC Academic Leadership Development Program will celebrate its 10-year anniversary during the 2017-18 academic year.

The SEC ALDP seeks to identify, prepare and advance academic leaders for roles within SEC institutions and beyond. It has three components: a university-level development program designed by each institution for its own participants (i.e., fellows); two SEC-wide workshops held on specified campuses for all program participants; and a competitive fellowship designed to provide administrative growth opportunities for former fellows.

This year’s first SEC-wide workshop will take place October 23-25 at Louisiana State University (LSU) and the second will be February 21-23, 2018 at Auburn University.

“It is our strong belief that helping to prepare administrators for the next phase of their careers has the potential to impact all of higher education, both now and in the future,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey has said of the SEC ALDP. “Our universities make a significant investment in these individuals, and we are proud to work with them through this program.”

The workshop at LSU will begin with an SEC ALDP retrospective, and Dr. Christine Curtis, who was instrumental in establishing the program during her time at the University of South Carolina, will provide a keynote address. Dr. Curtis currently serves as Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Alabama-Huntsville.

Like Dr. Curtis, many SEC ALDP alumni have taken leadership roles as deans and provosts, among other senior-level positions, at universities around the SEC and country. For example, Dr. Laurence Alexander from the University of Florida’s 2012-13 cohort is currently the Chancellor at the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, and Dr. Michael Hardin from the University of Alabama’s 2008-09 cohort is currently Provost at Samford University. In total, more than 350 faculty and academic administrators have completed the SEC ALDP.

“The content of the program was wonderful and all of the sessions had pearls of wisdom,” said Dr. Kathryn Cardarelli, Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs in the College of Public Health at the University of Kentucky and former fellow. “I also enjoyed meeting the participants and learning more about the diversity of positions at the other SEC universities.”

Click here for the full list of 2017-18 SEC ALDP fellows.