Creating Equitable Leaders
- Monic Behnken (Iowa State University)
- Dannia Thorpe (Iowa State University)
- Cameron Vannoy (Iowa State University)
Abstract
Given COVID-19 and this summer’s uprising for racial justice, our country is experiencing in a sea of change surrounding expectations of leadership. Leadership Studies believes that it is our obligation to contribute to a just, fair, and equitable world by offering a curriculum that prioritizes the tenets of equitable leadership built upon principles of justice and ethical behavior. To that end, Leadership Studies has partnered with the Program for Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) to create a leadership development course for first-year, female-identifying, STEM majors. Our goal is to teach them how to incorporate the principles of equity into their existing leadership practice. Specifically, this class teaches about ethno-racial identities, racism, gender and sexuality-based biases, intersectionality, creating an ecosystem for social change, privilege, allyship, moral and ethical decision-making, entrepreneurship & innovation, and how to respond to resistance to equitable practices. We utilized lectures, guest speakers, online videos, and case-study based group work. In this conference session, participants will hear about the course’s methods and how they develop equitable leaders. Participants will also hear from students who took the class previously and now serve as peer facilitators for this year’s cohort of students.