One Year In, a New Diversity Fellowship is Already Impacting the Tech Industry
In the inaugural year of the Next Leaders Fellowship, twelve fellows learned and worked together, and saw their careers grow. The next cohort of fellows has recently been selected, and will begin the program in March.
Michael Cato and Sherri Braxton, Bowdoin’s senior director for digital innovation. Cato has enlisted Braxton and ten other IT professionals from colleges and universities to serve as mentors.
With the support of Bowdoin College, Michael Cato, the College’s senior vice president and chief information officer, launched the Next Leaders Fellowship (NLF) in 2022 for tech professionals working at colleges and universities around the country.
Unique in the field of higher education information and technology, NLF offers professional development to mid-career IT specialists from historically excluded backgrounds. It aims to equip them with a network of peers and mentors—as well as new skills and experiences—so they feel better prepared to seek out senior leadership roles in the educational technology field.
The idea is that if more IT senior officers of color can serve as role models and mentors for younger generations of tech specialists, they can help build a sustainable pipeline in an industry that traditionally has not been very diverse.
