Today@Sam Article

SHSU Leadership Academy Honored With Development And Diversity Award

Nov. 30, 2017
SHSU Media Contact: Emily Binetti

Story by Hannah Haney 

In a ceremony that took place in San Diego, California on Oct. 22, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities honored Sam Houston State University’s High Potential Employee Leadership Academy with the Leadership Development and Diversity Award.

The award recognizes, “exemplary leadership development programs designed to enhance the leadership capacity and diversity of the next generation of higher education leaders.”  

In order to be considered, the institution must demonstrate the extent to which it is a part of an integrated approach designed to identify, develop and promote high-potential talent throughout the university. The program must also be diverse by design and it must have completed three cycles and have outcome data as evidence.   

SHSU’s High Potential Employee Leadership Academy guides a nine-month long developmental experience ranging from refining conflict resolution skills, prompting difficult conversations for implementing change and discovering their inner strengths.

“I think there are two key successes to the program. First, we started by clearly identifying the desired leadership outcomes we were looking for from the experience.  Receiving approval of the outcomes gave us the freedom to find the right content and to design each leader development experience,” director of Emergency Management and facilitator, David Yebra said. “Second, the selection of the participants is a top-down process that involves the leaders of the respective organizations. Each participant is hand-picked by their executive leadership emphasizing the importance of the experience and the acknowledgement that their leaders feel they represent the future of the organization.”  

Yebra credits “the design of the experience” and President Dana Hoyt’s vision as a crucial reason for the program’s success.

“We leveraged leaders on campus, in the community and from around the country in the design of the leadership academy experience.  Everyone unselfishly provided their insight and experience in helping us design the most effective leader development program possible,” Yebra said.

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