Leadership, Accomplishments, and the Importance of Institutional Change

From the EL Alliance Newsletter, Vol. 2, No. 1

Dear Empowering Leadership Alliance Community,

Leadership is a powerful concept, important to all of us. How can we all become leaders? What traits best exemplify a leader? What contributes to the development of leaders? What will help make us leaders in the future?

The name of the Empowering Leadership Alliance was carefully chosen to reflect an interest in finding, networking with, and truly empowering future leaders. Each and every member of the EL Alliance is committed to contributing to the success of minority leaders in computing fields in this country.

I want to say this to our EL Alliance students: on behalf of the EL Alliance leadership and partners, we are encouraged by your accomplishments, committed to providing you opportunities of interest to you in your career, and value your leadership, now and in the future. Please keep us posted as you develop and reach new milestones. You can write to us at https://my.rice.edu/survey/entry.jsp?id=1197581794996, anonymously, if you wish, but we’d like to share your achievements with others as you reach new goals. It makes us all stronger as we hear of the accomplishments of others in our community.

The nation looks to research institutions to provide leadership in science, engineering, mathematics, and computing. Consequently, research institutions must provide environments that shape and encourage leadership in their students. One of the important goals of the EL Alliance is institutional change, at the highest level. Input from our community is important—it gives us a voice and examples of where critical changes need to be made. Each of us can be a leader in this. I urge you to communicate honestly and openly about institutional and system-wide issues that need to be addressed. Be involved in committees and discussions that will help define the future of your own institutions, and share that information with your national colleagues.

We hope to hear from you soon about this important topic of leadership. Write to us at the Website above, anytime—I also encourage you to respond to the questions in the next section of this newsletter.

Sincerely,
Richard A. Tapia
Principal Investigator, EL Alliance

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last edited on 2008-05-26 1:46 PM