The Leadership Strengthening Program
A W.K. Kellogg Foundation Program for Leaders of Latin American and Caribbean Non-Governmental Organizations

By Timothy R. Allen

In 1998, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation approached LASPAU and the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) in Mexico with a request to develop a leadership strengthening program for leaders of non-governmental organizations that are recipients of Foundation funding. The central idea was to build a cadre of socially minded leaders who, through their projects, would work for the common good and have an increasingly significant social impact on their respective countries. An important theme was creating willingness in existing leaders to mentor and coach others. To address this request, LASPAU and ITESM developed a one-year program entitled The Leadership Strengthening Program.

The program, launched in July 2000, includes a three-week session at ITESM in Monterrey, Mexico, one week at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and nine months of online learning. The first group of twenty leaders began the online component in December 2000, having successfully completed the on-campus sessions.

The goals of The Leadership Strengthening Program are to:

• build awareness of modern concepts of leadership
  
• strengthen the skills, attitudes, and values needed to support a new leadership culture
  
• create new competencies in coaching and mentoring
  
• build a network among the participants to share ideas and experiences

One well-received aspect of the Cambridge sessions was a day dedicated to roundtable discussions between the participants and the executive directors of three prominent non-governmental organizations based in the United States: Stephen F. Moseley of the Academy for Educational Development, Catherine Crone-Coburn of Management Sciences for Health, and Samuel Worthington of PLAN International.

Faculty for the Cambridge component included four individuals from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government: David Brown, visiting professor in public administration; Patricia Craig, a research associate in the Overseas Program Office; Marie Danzinger, an auxiliary professor and director of the Program in Communications; and Jesús Mena, director of communications and public affairs. Also on the Cambridge faculty was Manuel Manga, a consultant in organization design and leadership training.

The Leadership Strengthening Program marks LASPAU’s entry into the new programmatic area of providing training for non-governmental organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The First Year's Participants:

Fall 2000/Winter 2001 Informativo Content: Leadership Strengthening Program | New Fulbright Grants for Dominican Citizens | Trustees’ Fund Award Recipients | Cassandra Pyle: An Appreciation | Workshops Provide Learning Opportunities | Financial Leadership Program | LASPAU Names New Directors | Grantee News | Calling All Fulbright Alumni | Grantee News | Contents