ELATES Curriculum
Competencies and Goals
The purpose of the Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering and Science (ELATES at Drexel) Fellowship is to build communities of exceptional women academic leaders who have broad organizational perspectives and deep personal capacity to address emerging issues in their schools and universities, and in the communities they serve. These leadership skills and relationships are essential to achieve the overall mission to advance and sustain academic women leaders. The program curriculum is designed to address four fundamental competencies.
Fellows will use strategic approaches to financial and resource management that enhance the missions of their organizations. They will be able to:
- Analyze organizational financial information to support and enhance core missions
- Develop comprehensive proposals for new institutional programs, aligning resources and organizational strategy to show value and feasibility
- Leverage resources to support operations and strategic initiatives of their own departments and centers
- Collaborate with university's institutional advancement/development team to support and develop fundraising priorities and strategy for their own department/unit
Fellows will adapt their leadership behaviors to effectively address strategic, operational, and relational challenges. They will be able to:
- Use personal awareness of leadership strengths to enhance professional effectiveness
- Develop strategic approaches to the pursuit, acceptance, and transition into new leadership positions
- Maintain practices of self-care that sustain personal and professional energy
- Develop and communicate persuasive messages for a variety of audiences
- Include the perspectives and experiences of diverse members in organizational discussions
- Resolve differences in perspective and positions to create shared expectations that support effective working relationships and allocation of resources
Fellows will lead and manage change initiatives within complex and dynamic academic organizations. They will be able to:
- Collaborate with diverse team members to advance organizational goals
- Partner with senior leaders and managers to sustain and advance the missions of the organization
- Negotiate the politics, culture, and hierarchy of their organizations to advance strategic initiatives
- Manage the transitions, communications, and open evaluation processes needed to effect change and maintain quality in their organizations
Fellows will develop and participate in a variety of communities of practice that support academic organizational leadership. They will be able to:
- Forge relationships across disciplines, professions, and organizations to expand professional networks
- Sustain leadership learning through formal professional development, leadership coaching, and reflection on outcomes of leadership activities
- Support the development of academic and leadership career development of others through mentoring and peer consultation
- Identify and access a circle of trusted advisors who can support ongoing leadership advancement and transitions
Action Learning Curriculum
To address these competencies, ELATES utilizes an Action Learning Curriculum that moves lessons of leadership from the classroom to on-the-job application at each Fellow’s home institution.
- Learning Communities of approximately six Fellows facilitate network building, foster team building skills, peer consultation, and listening.
- Interviews with executive leaders at the Fellow’s institution support understanding of financial and change strategy, higher education institutional structure and function, and challenges of leadership career development.
- Institutional Action Projects on topics of interest to the fellows and their deans open doors for institutional contribution and visibility as a leader and enhance skills of project development and strategy execution.
- Leadership development plans use reflective analysis and 360° feedback from peers, staff, and supervisors to increase personal and professional effectiveness.
- Conversations on Leadership provide an opportunity for fellows to engage in candid, moderated discussions with nationally recognized men and women from academic engineering and technology on topics important to emerging leaders.
- Leaders Forum joins together deans and Fellows for a an exploration of the Fellows’ Institutional Action Projects as the capstone to the fellowship program.
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Application Portal
Applications for the 2025-2026 ELATES fellowship year will open November 1, 2025.
Access the application portal to apply or to recommend or nominate a Fellow.