Civic leadership institute presents 2014 awards

Janel Shoun-Smith | 

Award-winners hope to enhance youth leadership, job skill development and more through ICL degrees

Youth leadership, the role of the arts in civic engagement, social enterprise and job skill development, and access to higher education are a few of the issues that the Nelson and Sue Andrews Institute for Civic Leadership’s 2014 award winners may be working on to improve the community over the next year as they earn their master’s of civic leadership from Lipscomb University.

In order to reach out to those seeking graduate education in some of the economy’s most crucial career fields, Lipscomb University works each year with several community organizations to recruit potential students in niche job growth areas such as civic leadership, conflict management and computing and informatics.

In fall 2014, the Andrews Institute worked with the Center for Nonprofit Management, CABLE, LEAD TN and the Young Leaders Council to select five of Nashville’s brightest future leaders to receive a discounted tuition rate to earn their master’s in civic leadership.

The winners hail from state government, education and nonprofit sectors and have exciting ideas about how they can help build a better community through collaborative leadership:

  • Pamela Lee, director of residential and education services, Monroe Harding Inc., selected by the Center for Nonprofit Management;
  • Leah Hashinger, program manager for ESL To Go, Tennessee Foreign Language Institute, selected by the Center for Nonprofit Management;
  • Heather Stewart, assistant general counsel, Tennessee Board of Regents, selected by the Young Leaders Council;
  • Deniece Thomas, director of field operations, Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Division of Workforce Services, selected by LEAD TN; and
  • Brenda Huff, director of the Center for Philanthropic Studies, Franklin Road Academy, selected by the networking organization CABLE.

“These civic groups have deep roots in the community and represent the potential leaders of Nashville and Middle Tennessee,” Michelle Steele, academic director of the institute, said of the partner organizations. “They are providing their members with opportunities to sharpen their leadership or collaboration skills across different sectors, so their membership represents some of the best minds and potential for leadership across the region.

“These award winners come from differing backgrounds, but they all have the same goal: to impact their community with positive change.”

These graduate students have already honed their leadership skills through careers in teaching and the military, volunteer work with Americorps and the Nashville Adult Literacy Council, and leadership of beneficial projects such as creating a mobile classroom to bring English classes to refugees in their homes and establishing the Nashville Classical Charter School in East Nashville.

Now they plan to enhance those leadership skills with the community engagement and collaboration skills taught at the Andrews Institute to bring about real and lasting change in the community.

“I want to inspire others to take a seat at the table to work toward the resolution of many of those key needs and issues that impact us as a community,” said Thomas, who worked as the manager of the U.S. Army’s MWR (family and morale, welfare and recreation) program for some years prior to working for the Tennessee Department of Labor.

“The civic leadership master’s program with its collaborative, project-based model is appealing because as part of our study we use our city as a laboratory for learning,” said Huff, who taught for more than 15 years. “The knowledge and skills I gain as an educator will equip me to empower the next generation of civic leaders.”

“I see this degree as an investment in my community. The more complex problems become, the more collaboration is needed,” said Stewart, who is a past president of the board of the Nashville Adult Literacy Council and a founding board member for Nashville Classical Charter School. “While I received an excellent legal education, leadership skills aren’t taught in law school. I hope to marry my legal education with the leadership and collaboration skills I learn through this program to impact my community in a positive, intentional way.”

Each student will choose an issue to focus on throughout their studies and as their capstone project to carry out over a five-month period. Examples of civic issues these students hope to focus on include:

  • Empowering immigrants to take on leadership roles and cultivate job skills;
  • Enhancing access to higher education for Tennessee’s underserved populations;
  • Working with at-risk youth to learn how to access and use community resources to change their condition; and
  • Establishing partnerships between nonprofit leaders and college professors in the social services field.