NY6 Launches Second Mellon Fellows Cohort

A new cohort of NY6 Mellon Academic Leadership Fellows began the program in July and will spend the next two and a half years exploring academic leadership through targeted professional development programs and an immersion year experience in which they will be embedded in their institution’s academic dean’s office. The NY6 Mellon Fellows are:

Ani Maitra, Colgate University: Associate Professor and Director of Film and Media Studies.
Alexandra Plakias, Hamilton College: Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy
Laura Free, Hobart and William Smith Colleges: Associate Professor of History
Angela Sweigart-Gallagher, St. Lawrence University: Associate Professor of Performance and Communication Arts
Lisa Jackson-Schebetta, Skidmore College: Professor and Chair of Theater
Elena McGrath, Union College: Assistant Professor of History

In July, the NY6 fellows joined their peers from the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and Associated Colleges of the South in Chicago for their first Mellon Summer Institute. The four-day event featured return appearances from Kimberly Griffin (Dean, University of Maryland College of Education) and Marjorie Hass (President, Council of Independent Colleges) as well as first-time presenter Lena Hill (Provost, Washington and Lee University), who all focused on becoming academic leaders and the many challenges that manifest from this professional transition. Jamie Thompson (Director of Strategic Initiatives in Student Affairs, Trinity University) and Justin Sipher (Justin Sipher Consulting) guided the fellows through an assessment of their leadership strengths and strategies for employing these assets. The institute concluded with a workshop on institutional budgets led by Eric Runestad (Vice President and Treasurer, Carleton College) and a final word from Colgate President Brian Casey on why the academy needs courageous leaders—and especially humanists—now.