District Leadership Fellows
“The District Fellowship Program has been an invaluable experience. The immersive experience coupled with mentorship and networking helped me to embrace collaborative leadership and honed my strategic thinking. Engaging the program empowered me to lead with purpose!” Dr. Veronica Perkins, Superintendent, Blytheville School District
Applications are open for the 2024–2025 cohort of the District Leadership Fellows, a hybrid in-person and online strengths-based leadership development program run by the Institute for Leadership Impact at Southern Methodist University. Established and emerging district leaders who are collaborative, motivated to create change, and who have a strong desire for personal leadership growth are invited to apply. Throughout the program, fellows will apply learning from cohort meetings, peer group meetings and interactive tutorials to a real-world challenge in their districts.
The 2023-2024 cohort of District Leadership Fellows gathered at SMU to engage with speakers and panelists, to share their project updates, and to look ahead to the spring semester.
Over the last three sessions, the District Leadership Fellows have been developing their Active Listening skills. The cohort first learned the basis of Active Listening which is OARS: Open-ended Questions, Affirmation, Reflective Listening, and Summarizing. The Fellows then applied this skill by interviewing each other in breakout rooms.
The 2023-2024 cohort of District Leadership Fellows met at SMU for their fall retreat.
District Leadership Fellows were welcomed to SMU for two days of learning, connecting, collaborating and reflecting. After beginning the program online, Fellows welcomed the chance to meet and learn in person.
A new cohort of school district leaders have been welcomed into the District Leadership Fellows program, a hybrid in-person and online leadership training program for school district superintendents and district leaders run by the Institute for Leadership Impact at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
“The District Leadership Fellows program offered me professional growth overall. By identifying my areas of strength as a leader and acknowledging the strengths of others on my team, we have shifted the way we lead in our district.” Mrs. Taylor Williams, Superintendent, Slidell ISD
2022-2023 District Leadership Fellows gathered at SMU for a Mid-Year Retreat to share progress on their individual projects, and to plan for moving forwards in the spring.
The SMU District Leaders program at its center creates a space for leaders to discuss Problems of Practice that are germane to the conversation happening in the field of Educational Leadership. – Dr. Eduardo Hernandez, Superintendent, Edgewood ISD, Texas
The 2022-2023 cohort of District Leadership Fellows has begun the year with an in-person meeting at SMU.