Strengthening leadership at UK: Collaborative meeting sparks new ideas across campus
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 10, 2026) — More than 35 faculty and staff members from 15 colleges and units connected with colleagues Feb. 2 at the second University of Kentucky Leadership Development Collaborative (LDC) meeting.
Participants shared leadership best practices and explored collaborative strategies and metrics for advancing leadership development across campus.
Held at The Cornerstone Innovation Lab, attendees rotated through small-group sessions led by colleagues, highlighting effective leadership development models.
Sessions and leaders include:
- Selective Cohort Student Leadership Development, led by Sally Foster, assistant dean for student engagement, and Shonta Phelps, director of leadership initiatives and LLP.
- Student Success Initiatives for Student Leadership Development, led by Libby Langlois, associate director for student organizations and activities.
- Health care/COM Leadership Development, led by Chris Lakes, Ed.D., associate dean for student affairs.
- Community Innovation Lab: Developing Student Leaders through Engaged Scholarship, led by Professor Bryan Hains, Ph.D., and Associate Professor Kristina Hains, Ph.D.
Foster said she appreciated the opportunity to engage with peers who share a commitment to leadership education.
“It is refreshing to step into creative conversations where professionals with like interests and goals can brainstorm and learn from each other,” she said.
Following the best practice rotations, attendees focused on one to two of seven LDC goals to discuss within their small group. Collaborative strategies and metrics centered on:
- Leadership development mapping of UK programs and activities
- Defining leadership at UK
- Best practice sharing
- Cross-unit collaboration and communication
- Participation expansion and broadening
- Advisor and facilitator support
- Leadership development programming and content
“One of the aims of meeting was to provide space for participants to imagine how leadership development can be implemented across the full range of student experiences at UK,” said Trey Conatser, Ph.D., assistant provost for teaching and learning and director of Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT). “We learned that there are many opportunities for students to develop these leadership skills in unique ways, and for all of us to articulate a shared language and commitment to leadership as a signature quality of all UK graduates.”
“The LDC convening was a pivotal opportunity for leaders across colleges and units to illuminate common challenges, such as broadening student participation in leadership experiences, and work together to spark creative ideas for how to address them,” said Cory Curl, Ph.D., lecturer and director of undergraduate studies at UK’s Martin School of Public Policy and Administration.
“The discussion generated some great ideas that I can integrate within our leadership development curriculum and programs,” Foster added.
The LDC was established through funding from the provost’s Institutional Multidisciplinary Paradigm to Accelerate Collaboration and Transformation Award, received by Laura Bryan, Ph.D., director of honors leadership initiatives and interim dean of Lewis Honors College. Bryan envisioned the campuswide collaborative as a way to prepare future leaders who will positively impact Kentucky’s economic development, human well-being and quality of life.
A Leadership Advisory Council, also formed under the provost’s IMPACT grant, advanced ideas generated during the first LDC meeting into these structured small-group discussions. The council includes representatives from across campus, such as faculty from CELT; the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment; the College of Education; and the Gatton College of Business and Economics, as well as leaders from Student Success, the Martin School of Public Policy and Administration and Lewis Honors College.
The LAC will host the next event, a faculty and staff seminar, April 22. The topic will be the Council for Postsecondary Education’s Kentucky Graduate Profile: The 10 Essential Skills.
Faculty and staff interested in learning more about the LDC or joining future gatherings can visit the website and share their contact information online at https://uky.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4N5TUtcQ7MOE3Vc.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.