As the UO Leadership Academy enters its fourth year, the program is beginning to accept applicants for its 2022-23 class. Applications are due by Jan. 24.

Established in 2018 by the Office of the Provost, the academy is designed to enhance skills like transformative leadership among UO employees, to create an inclusive and diverse community of campus leaders. The academy has seen 118 faculty members and staff, across four classes, participate in the yearlong program.

“One of the program’s main messages is that we can all be leaders from whatever position we are in, and I hadn’t recognized the ways that I was already acting as a leader until I became a part of the Leadership Academy,” said Emily Simnitt, a senior instructor in the Department of English and a graudate of the program’s 2019-20 cohort.

This year, Simnitt was selected as the inaugural leadership fellow in the newly launched Provost Fellows Program. Since beginning her yearlong position this summer, Simnitt has created and facilitated a “Gather and Grow” series for graduates of the Leadership Academy. Similar to the framework of the Leadership Academy, members from the first three classes are invited to meet once a month to continue their work and discussions about transformational leadership on campus.

Simnitt is also conducting an assessment of the academy, in collaboration with program graduates Renee Delgado-Riley and Austin Hocker. The report, which will be completed in summer 2022, will cover the first four years of the program to identify aspects that are successful and new areas that are important for building campus leadership. The assessment helps guide the future of the academy.

“I probably wouldn’t have seen myself as somebody who would be applying for a leadership fellow position, and that’s something that I really appreciate about the academy,” said Simnitt.

UO faculty members or staff who are interested can apply online on the Leadership Academy website.

—By Kaitlyn Jimenez, University Communications