Learning community (LC) advisors guide the process of LC members organizing, following good processes and establishing practices of mutual support for each other and for fellowship assignments. Since ELAM expanded to 54 fellows per year in 2010, we are now able to keep the LCs at six per group. The nine LC advisors meet their fellows throughout the fellowship year, by attending the program for 2-3 days each session, including a two-hour LC meeting. They hold 2-3 conference calls with the director over the course of the year, and meet with the fellows via twice-monthly conference calls. The characteristics of an effective LC advisor are those of:

• Mentoring team members without becoming a personal advisor
• Empathic listening, open inquiry, and mindfulness in moments of dissent
• Skill in managing effective team process and drawing out the wisdom of group members when the response to problems is not evident
• The ability to draw upon diverse perspectives and experiences to enhance inclusion among group members

We generally invite three new LC advisors each year and seek those who are a few years out of the ELAM experience, after they have had a good taste of institutional leadership challenges. Most advisors feel their own learning curve the first year, appreciate their increased confidence in advising the second year, and are ready to retire from the fulfillment after three years.

Panelists for Meet the Leaders: Conversations on Power and Politics are experienced institutional leaders who speak to the issues of organizational politics, the generous use of power (some refer to this as the Power of Yes), and the challenges of leadership transitions. This wisdom is shared through stories that inspire, and candidly and graciously open conversations of challenge and leadership learning. Characteristics of effective conversation leaders include:

• Experience with leadership job transitions and working with diverse staff
• The ability to tell a good story, one that reveals challenge and sometimes failure from the position of having learned and moved forward as an even more effective leader
• The ability to engage an audience and share the stage with other leaders, neither overshadowing them nor shrinking from the limelight

Conversations are held with the fellows and 3-4 panelists during the spring session of ELAM. The two hour session is generously supported by a gift from the Alumnae/i Trust Fund of Woman's Medical College/ Medical College of Pennsylvania, and we are pleased to be joined by many of the Trust Fund members for the evening discussion and dinner. In addition, panelists are invited to provide 3-6 career consultations for fellows and to participate in any fellowship activities over the course of those couple days.

Panelists for Career Day share their journeys of pursuing and being pursued for new positions, deciding and negotiating for roles and resources to do the job well, and transitioning from one leadership role and network to another. The sessions provide a capstone to a day of learning about how to deconstruct one's leadership experiences into a crisp presentation of capabilities on an executive summary or cover letter for an executive position, how to contribute effectively to institutional search committee, as well as how to search for new positions oneself. Each year we seek panelists who:

• Have made transitions within their organizations or who have moved from other institutions within the previous 1-2 years
• Have had challenging transitions or negotiations that resulted in better offers than they had initially expected
• Represent a full range of clinicians, scientists, and educators from medicine, dentistry, and public health, and can provide insights into the challenges of seeking, negotiating and accepting with sufficient candor that fellows can appreciate the problem solving and the satisfaction of the process of job transitions

As with Conversation leaders, Career Day panelists are invited to provide career consultations and to participate in fellowship activities that take place during their 1-2 day visit.

Institutional Action Project (IAP) peer consultants meet with fellows to bring the voices of experience to development of the organizational change initiatives that integrate leadership skill development, strategic network building, and executive mentoring over the course of the fellowship, and often for years beyond. This session, introduced three years ago, has been designed and facilitated by two remarkable ELUM educators, Luanne Thorndyke and Maryellen Gusic. Building on their experience with integration of projects into junior faculty development they worked with ELAM staff to organize this two-hour session in which fellows present the design and challenges of their projects to small groups of 1-2 ELUMS and 3-4 fellows whose projects share a similar focus. The session follows two days of lessons in organizational change in which fellows consider how to engage stakeholders, how to communicate the importance of their initiatives, and how to use the campaign approach to expand small pilots into larger endeavors. Prepared with a brief synopsis of the fellows' projects, alumnae listen to the intentions and concerns of fellows and then provide welcome advice on how to limit scope, leverage small wins, and use the project to enhance leadership opportunities. Each year, ELAM seeks 15 or more alumnae for this incredibly valuable session. It immediately precedes the Alumnae Professional Development meeting in even-numbered years and gives alumnae in the region of the program additional incentives to connect for a small program in odd-numbered years.