Meet Your 2017 MIG Chair-Elects!
By Jill Schreider
Jill Schreider is a marketing and communications intern at the International Leadership Association. She is a junior communications major at the University of Maryland College Park and looks forward to a future working in public relations.
ILA’s six Member Interest Groups (MIG) are led by committed, energetic, thoughtful members, elected to serve for three-years, one year each as chair-elect, chair, and immediate past-chair. “We are so appreciative of all of the ILA members who make the decision to run for a leadership position in one of the member interest groups. Thank you for your dedication and willingness to serve,” says CEO and ILA President Cynthia Cherrey. “The ILA staff looks forward to working with the new chair-elects over the next three years as we all work together to create better, more integrated leadership solutions for this turbulent world of ours.”
All of the chair-elects have incredible insights to offer and creative ideas to serve their communities. They have each set their goals high, and have created impactful objectives based on their MIG’s sector. We posed some questions to your new chair-elects to help you to get to them better.
While each chair-elect focuses on their individual area, there were still clear trends that appeared when we asked them to share the one thing they would like to accomplish over the next three years. A common theme was that they wish to help diversify and grow ILA’s membership in general and participation in their own MIG in particular. Tara Edberg, Leadership Education MIG chair-elect, expressed her goal of increasing international involvement, while Tasha Coppett, Youth Leadership MIG chair-elected, honed in on the opportunities for MIG growth within her group’s demographic focus. Another shared sentiment was the perceived need to mentor or to help others reach their leadership potential. Reneé Green, of the Leadership Development MIG stated, “I would like to focus on developing others who are trying to reach the top.... So many people want to get ahead; however, they lack the mentorship of someone who is already on the journey to speak into their life. I hope we can change that.” Tasha wrote, “Additionally, I am interested in creating opportunities for youth mentoring and increased intercultural dialogues.”
The ambitious goals of ILA’s chair-elects are needed to meet the multitude of challenges they perceive in their various sectors. When asked to describe what they saw as the biggest challenges many cited a lack of innovation and the need for increased collaboration. In a world where people should be creating bridges, not walls, and bringing ideas from different people together, they aim to tackle the issue of decreased dialogue. One of the strategies mentioned by Tasha, and a value deeply espoused by the ILA, was to bring academics and practitioners together who “could produce and present the innovation our colleagues are seeking.” A strategy that Andrew Wefald, Leadership Scholarship MIG chair-elect, shared was to bring together scholars working on leadership questions in other disciplines to “enhance the level of scholarship for the entire conference and field of leadership.” The challenging, uncertain and turbulent, complex times that we live in and the need to create solutions for diverse stakeholders in global contexts was also mentioned, and the importance of work-life balance and avoiding burnout.
The chair-elects are eager to see their plans and aspirations put into action. They all want ILA members to know that they are excited for this position and would appreciate any feedback. Reneé advised, “I am excited to hear your thoughts of what you would like to see happen with the leadership development interest group…. There are so many leaders waiting for our skills. Let’s create a development think tank to make this happen!” Email addresses for the leadership team of each MIG is available by following the links above to their webpages.