LEADERSHIP

Noyce Leadership Institute

The Noyce Leadership Fellows (NLF), a program of the Noyce Leadership Institute (NLI), assists leaders of science centers and related institutions to move forward with greater effectiveness and public impact in the 21st century. These leaders act as change agents at the crossroads of societal trends, global issues, and the cutting edge of informal science. They need access to knowledge, tools, best practices, and professional networks to sustain and advance innovation in their own institutions and in the field.

NLF seeks to enable chief executives of science centers to deepen their institutions’ involvement with their communities. This will strengthen the impact of science centers as innovative educational hubs that engage their publics in science at every age — encouraging children and youth to choose careers in science and helping adults to understand the crucial science issues in their lives.

NLF is designed using “action learning” principles, which means the program's concepts, tools, and resources are coordinated closely to ensure immediate learning from applications in the Fellow's work environment. Throughout the program year, Fellows bring real-life issues into the program, seeking insights and solutions from interaction with faculty, executive coaches, other program advisors, and their peers.

Three residential retreats provide an opportunity to meet leading experts in leadership, strategy, governance, organizational change, nonprofit management, and fundraising. Before and between retreats, Fellows exchange information with faculty, peers, and executive coaches through audio conferences, telephone calls, and a private website. The program also includes direct contact with “leaders in residence”, accomplished executives from science centers who attend portions of the on-site retreats and participate in several audio-conferences as content experts.

The cohort design and the learning from peers are central to the program. During the program year, Fellows meet monthly in small groups (“peer application groups”) via audio conference to share insights into the strategic issues they face and to form a community with a high level of collegiality, confidentiality and trust.

In addition, each Fellow works on a major “strategic initiative” of his or her choosing. A strategic initiative is essential work that an institution undertakes to address current challenges and that serves as a focal point for applying new knowledge and leadership skills. Ideally, the strategic initiative will be a seed for growing deeper connections between the institution and its local community in ways that yield greater public impact and contribute to the institutions relevance and sustainability. A strategic initiative can be work already under way or targeted as high-priority going forward. Strategic initiatives do not have to be completed within the NLF program year, but Fellows should be able to make significant progress during the twelve months of the program.

Applications are now being accepted for the 2011-2012 Noyce Leadership Fellows program. Click here to access application materials.