Leadership Center announces plans to create program for American Indians
posted June 30, 2011
In its latest effort to meet the ever-changing leadership needs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and beyond, the Cardinal Stritch University Leadership Center is working with the Forest County Potawatomi Foundation to develop a program for American Indian professionals.
Recently, the Leadership Center received a generous grant of $40,000 from the Forest County Potawatomi Foundation to initiate planning for the American Indian Leadership Program, and the Center is recruiting American Indians from across the state to be involved in the planning process.
The initial objectives of the Center are to gather existing local and national data specific to American Indian leadership and conduct a statewide survey of American Indians on leadership. The project will also involve eight sets of focus groups with various stakeholders, such as elders, women, inter-tribal, and others. The focus groups will be an opportunity to consult with American Indians, gather data that will shape the program content, build awareness of the initiative, and begin identifying potential program participants.
“It’s unique and exciting that there’s an academic institution looking at American Indian leadership,” said Mark Denning, an advisor to the project and a member of Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin. “There’s a spiritual component to this process and that makes this a natural partnership. Stritch’s spiritual identity is unique and is consistent with American Indian philosophy and leadership.”
All of this data will subsequently be analyzed and leadership development themes will be identified. Those themes will be compared with existing research and theory about leadership formation within American Indians. When completed, this data will inform the development of a specific program curriculum that reflects the rich, diverse American Indian culture. The resulting program will be used to strengthen the leadership of American Indian professionals and communities in Wisconsin.
“The Leadership Center has demonstrated expertise in gaining insightful understanding of communities of color,” said Jeanette Mitchell, director of leadership for professionals of color with the Stritch Leadership Center. “We will be working closely with the American Indian community to have them tell us what the program should look like. When we design programs such as this, we partner with the community just as much as we partner with organizations.”
The Leadership Center has a 10-year history of working consistently and collaboratively to build some of the most innovative, transformative and effective leadership training programs for people of color in the region.
In 2004, the Center partnered with the Roberto Hernandez Center at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee to launch the Latino Nonprofit Leadership Program, which offers training seminars and retreat sessions to help nonprofit leaders deepen and strengthen their contributions to Latino nonprofits and the Latino community. In 2008, Stritch launched the highly successful African-American Leadership Program, a nine-month experience designed to unleash the talent of African-American professionals for personal, organizational, and regional gain.