About
The Idea
Next Leaders Fellowship (NLF) is an effort that seeks to identify, develop, and advocate for information and technology professionals in higher education, especially those pursuing senior leadership roles. NLF recruits participants into a one-year cohort experience where they are mentored by accomplished senior leaders committed to supporting their professional growth. This effort does not seek to replace existing leadership development programs, but instead complements them by explicitly recruiting a cohort of candidates with a wide array of experiences, roles, and backgrounds, creating a community among and around them, and providing mentorship and coaching throughout the program year.
Background
Far too few information and technology professionals have access to the networks, professional development, and stretch experiences that are often required to attain senior leadership roles.
The Fellowship
NLF works to address these gaps by building a supporting framework to identify, develop, and advocate for talented information and technology professionals in higher education. NLF recruits participants who spend a year in a cohort experience to support their professional growth. Through the program year NLF will provide professional development experiences covering topics that include emotional intelligence, organizational behavior, budgets and financial planning, and design thinking. Mentored by a group of accomplished senior information and technology leaders, the cohort will have a space to explore how their backgrounds, experiences, and identities may influence and shape how they navigate their careers.
Notably, NLF includes conversations with higher education leaders across varied institutional roles and institution types. These sessions explore insights from the experiences and perspectives of these leaders, while creating opportunities for the NLF cohort to engage with them. Woven through the NLF year are ongoing experiences focused on career development—preparing for senior roles, the application process and making a case for yourself, negotiation, starting new roles well, etc. Additionally, NLF engages participants in conversations with search consultants and firms to broaden the portfolio of candidates the firms are considering, and develop relationships participants can turn to as they progress through their careers.
Importantly, NLF does not seek to compete with or replace existing management and leadership development programs. Instead, the NLF serves as an interconnecting resource—explicitly recruiting a cohort of candidates with a wide array of experiences, roles, and backgrounds, creating a community among and around them, and providing mentorship and coaching throughout the program year. Additionally, NLF supports and advocates for their participation in one existing senior-level leadership development program, including covering the cost of registration, and providing $1,000 towards travel costs for that program experience.
In parallel, NLF hosts experiences to engage with institutional leaders, human resources professionals, search consulting firms, and other interested parties on how together we can demystify recruiting practices. These efforts also help inform and refine NLF content and structure.
FELLOWSHIP OUTLINE
Held in conjunction with the 2025 NERCOMP annual conference, the NLF Kickoff Experience will engage Fellows, Mentors, and Sponsors in a series of conversations and exercises to identify areas of focus and develop individualized plans of action for the program year. Examples include:
- NLF Program introduction
- Community building with participants and mentors
- Personal and group assessment (e.g. Belbin, Birkman Assessment, StrengthsFinder)
- Designing Your Life (DYL) workshop
- Mindful self-compassion and approaches to self-care
- Creating participant-specific personal development plans
- Example topics include:
- Recruiting, hiring, and team development
- How our identities shape our experiences and leadership
- Considerations of intersectionality
- Relationships and communications
- Leadership (e.g. styles, approaches, frameworks)
- The diversity bonus
- Guest panelists and speakers
- Presidents and institutional leaders
- Association leaders (e.g. CUPA-HR, NACUBO)
- Career development
- NLF search firm partners and HR professionals
- Closer engagement between participants and mentors
- Reflection on and reinforcement of the monthly sessions
- More space to continue the dialogue
- Perhaps useful to schedule a week after the monthly group conversation
Each NLF participant will be sponsored to participate in one professional development experience such as the EDUCAUSE Institutes, Leading Change Institute, MOR Leaders program, or ITSMF Academies.
Sponsorship will include advocacy through NLF in support of their application to the program, covering the costs of registration, and providing $1,000 towards travel and lodging costs.
In conjunction with the 2023 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, the Fellowship will hold a retreat to bring the cohort together and build on their experiences thus far in the program. Registration and travel costs will be sponsored by NLF.
The retreat will include:
- Community building with participants and mentors
- Engagement with the broader higher education IT community
- Fellowship sessions with constituent groups such as the Diversity in IT, Women in IT, and LGBTQIA
- Small group conversations with senior IT leaders across the community
In conjunction with the 2026 NERCOMP Annual Conference, NLF will invite participants to a celebration of the completion of their cohort year, as well as to engage with the incoming NLF cohort which will begin their experience at that time.
- Capstone celebration of completing the program
- Participant reflections from their learning
- Participant feedback to enhance NLF
- Launching of a NLF alumni network
Costs and Sponsorship
Program expenses for each NLF participant are budgeted at $10,000. Thanks to the generous support of Bowdoin College and the NLF sponsors and partners, the cost to each NLF participant will be $1,000.
Additionally, to prevent cost from being a barrier a limited number of scholarships are available to participants to further reduce the cost of the program. Applicants are encouraged to indicate if scholarship support will be required as part of their application for the program.
