Leadership Development and Support

AAC&U helps higher education reframe what it means to be a good leader, reexamine existing norms, and validate authentic forms of leadership that exhibit self-awareness, internalized moral perspectives, and relational transparency.

The urgent task of bolstering public trust in higher education, while simultaneously engaging in the daily work of leading and managing institutions focused on student success, requires thoughtful leadership and dedicated commitment. It also requires making structural changes that align the academy with the lived experience of diverse leaders and rejecting reward systems that mandate role congruity and privilege the ideal of a good leader as an autocratic, authoritarian, competitive agent.

AAC&U provides dedicated programming, resources, and events that help higher education leaders develop, find community, and succeed—even amid an ever-growing list of challenges, from political polarization and public disinvestment to ongoing injustice and threats to academic freedom.

Leadership Initiatives

Presidents’ Trust

The Presidents’ Trust is a network of CEOs committed to advancing the vision, values, and practices that connect liberal education with the needs of a diverse student body, a global workforce, and thriving communities.

Forum on Transformational Leadership

The Forum on Transformational Leadership is designed to prepare mid-career leaders in higher education with the knowledge, tools, and courage to meet complex challenges and create change at their institutions.

Advancing Public Trust in Higher Education (APT)

APT promotes the democratic purposes of colleges and universities by furthering public trust in and appreciation for higher education.

Project Kaleidoscope STEM Leadership Institute

The PKAL STEM Leadership Institute catalyzes the internal shifts needed to ignite and support deep, meaningful change in undergraduate STEM education and in the leader who boldly seeks greater responsibility for it.

K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award

The Cross Award honors graduate students who show exemplary promise as future leaders of higher education and who are committed to academic innovation in equity, community engagement, and teaching and learning.

AAC&U New Leadership Academy Fellows Program

This 6-month leadership program is designed to provide experienced professionals with the knowledge, tools, and confidence to navigate the complexities of today’s evolving academic landscape.

A Call for Constructive Engagement

This statement was developed in collaboration with university and college presidents and other educational leaders across the country, after national meetings convened by AAC&U and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Interfaith Leadership in Higher Education

AAC&U partners with Interfaith America to prepare teams of college and university leaders to transform their campuses into model environments for interfaith cooperation.