In late July, the New York Six Mellon Academic Leadership Fellows gathered with their counterparts from the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and the Associated Colleges of the South for the second Mellon Summer Institute. After joining the NY6 presidents for a session of their summer meeting, the fellows began an intensive three-day program focused on the current state of DEIB work in higher education, leading through crisis, and preparing for their next steps in academic leadership.
The institute kicked off with Phillip Brian Harper and Carolyn Dinshaw of the Mellon Foundation, who shared their own paths to academic leadership as well as their vision for the academic leadership program and the foundation’s broader goals. Kimberly Griffin, dean of the University of Maryland College of Education, returned for her second Summer Institute to lead a session with Cornell Verdeja-Woodson, founder of Brave Trainings and head of DEIB and talent development at Pixar Studios, focused on the personal and institutional challenges faced by those leading through equity and inclusion. Erin Hennessy of TVP Communications then led three college presidents, Elizabeth Davis of Furman, Anne Harris of Grinnell, and Brian Casey of Colgate, in a conversation on managing and communicating through campus crises. The institute concluded with Keight Tucker Kennedy from Isaacson, Miller and Jay Lemons from Academic Search preparing the fellows for their next steps in academic leadership.
The institute marks the end of the fellowship’s immersion year and the beginning of a year in which the fellows will begin sharing their experiences and the findings of their projects on their home campuses and at national academic leadership conferences.