In 2016, Flora Tydings, then Chattanooga State’s president, asked Jim Barrott, the executive vice president of the school’s technical college, to develop a leadership program.
Barrott used his personal leadership experiences gained during his then 31 years of college leadership and reviewed models in both Georgia and Florida before implementing the 11-month leadership exploration and development program called Chatt-LEAD.
The program, which strengthens new and emerging leaders from across the campus community, uses a cohort method and has been successful at building leaders internally. “Two cohorts later and we have a winning program,” Barrott says.
Chatt-LEAD’s intent is to foster a broader understanding of the college, accelerate talent development, hone individual and team leadership skills. Its mission “to inspire and empower faculty and staff members to leverage leadership skills for the service of the college community” has positively impacted the college by furthering professional goals as well as the school’s long-term goals.
Throughout the past year, the 2018 cohort group met weekly to discuss higher education leadership, strategic planning, change management, process improvement, talent management, legal issues in education and data-driven decision-making. Relevant topics were addressed through seminars, workshops, hosted speaker events, campus tours and team projects.
“Chatt-LEAD was a rewarding experience that allowed us to build lasting relationships with colleagues across the college so we may better serve our students and increase their probability of success,” says Chad Jaynes, manager of technical training. “The program’s design and delivery encouraged each member to grow his or her skills and helped us understand that leadership is everyone’s job.”
Sarah Copeland, a librarian and fellow Chatt-LEAD member, says, “Chatt-LEAD was a tremendous opportunity to learn more about Chattanooga State. Like many others in Chatt-LEAD Cohort 2, I appreciated the sense of community we built with colleagues from across the college. The mix of faculty and staff in the program made for dynamic conversations and a space for learning from each other.”
The 2018 Chatt-LEAD cohort 2 group included: Copeland; Lori Warren, library services; Linda Coslett, Lindsay Holland and Stracee Robinson, social and behavioral sciences; Andy Cross and Jessica Green, financial aid; Guy Davis, plant operations; Amy Hitchcock, media services; Jaynes; Scott Jenno, enrollment services center; Melissa Johnston, institutional effectiveness and research; Jimmy Jones, technical college; Lisa Miller and Beth Ruta, engineering and information technologies; and Janet Samec, bursar’s office.
Source:By Betty Proctor, Chattanooga State