UK launches campus-wide Leadership Collaborative for 2025-26
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 18, 2025) — The University of Kentucky Leadership Development Collaborative (LDC) kicked off the academic year by bringing together 37 faculty and staff from 15 colleges and units to explore ways to share leadership initiatives across campus on Sept. 8.
The LDC was created through funding from the Provost’s Institutional Multidisciplinary Paradigm to Accelerate Collaboration and Transformation (IMPACT) Award, received by Laura Bryan, Ph.D., director of honors leadership initiatives and now interim dean of Lewis Honors College. Bryan envisioned the campus-wide collaborative as a way to prepare future leaders who will impact Kentucky’s economic development, human well-being and quality of life.
Based on ideas generated during the kick-off meeting, the Leadership Advisory Council (LAC) of this IMPACT Award will guide the next steps for the LDC. 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.
Other goals for the IMPACT Award include a partnership between the Lewis Honors College and the Martin School for Public Policy and Administration to design and implement the Rising Leader Education Program and the partnership of seven campus units as members of the LAC to guide the IMPACT Award.
Faculty and staff interested in learning more about the LDC or joining future gatherings can share their contact information here: 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.