Leadership Matters | The Aspen Institute's Leadership Programs

LEADERSHIP MATTERS THE ASPEN INSTITUTE LEADERSHIP PROGRAMS

At the Aspen Institute, we believe that leadership matters. In a time of rapid change, widening disparities, and political unrest, extreme ideologies are eating away at the common bonds that unite us.

We need people across our communities, at all levels, to step up with integrity and purpose to confront the challenges we face both locally and globally.

What if we elevate, amplify, and connect people across sectors, generations, and geographies?

For nearly 70 years, the Aspen Institute method of text-based dialogue has spurred people to think deeply about timeless human values, their implications for leading a meaningful life, and acting on one’s responsibility for building a better society. We need more leaders, both seasoned and emerging, to enter the arena during trying times. The work of the Institute’s leadership programs creates a continuum of initiatives challenging leaders ages 14 to 84 to sharpen their values and take action.

The thousands of leaders who have participated in our programs have gone on to have real impact in their communities. They are young adults finding their voices and organizing their peers around conservation, educational access, social justice, and more; public-sector leaders finding common ground with each other in quiet, but meaningful ways; and senior business leaders using their platforms to close educational achievement gaps, improve access to health care, raise financial literacy, fight domestic violence, build new pipelines of ethical leadership, and much more.

The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the most important challenges facing the United States and the world.

Headquartered in Washington, DC, the Institute has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, and an international network of partners.

Our Commitment to Values-based Leadership The best leadership comes from those whose motivations are grounded in their values and whose actions demonstrate a clarity of purpose. Therefore, effective, sustainable leadership must be values-based.

Our commitment is to challenge individuals at all levels of society, across countries and generations, to sharpen their values and awaken their sense of responsibility for building a more free, just, and equitable world.

What makes us unique?

Our programs are the catalyst to the many processes that enable people to flourish and thrive, starting with the creation of human relationships. Our programs create communities of people – young and old – who are willing and able to make an impact in the lives of others.

Our theory for developing values-based leader is built on:

A proven 70-year track record of values-based leadership development

Programs designed to sharpen values, catalyze action and create impact

Commitment to diversity and inclusion

A focus on collaboration for effective and sustainable change

What if we elevate, amplify, and Our Leadership connect leaders across sectors, Development Ecosystem generations, geographies?

The Institute’s leadership programs consist of four departments focused on leaders of different ages, sectors, and geographies.

Within their focused areas, each program is uniquely designed to catalyze ideas, break down barriers, and spur action for societal change.

ENTREPRENURIAL LEADERS GLOBAL REACH

CONNECTING YOUTH TO OPPORTUNITY COMMUNITY-BASED

COMMUNITY LEADERS CULTURAL CHANGE

EXECUTIVE LEADERS VALUES-FOCUSED

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP SEMINARS | EXECUTIVE LEADERS

What if we help leaders understand the values that guide their decisions?

Executive Leadership Seminars enable leaders to refine their personal and institutional values by informing thinking, encouraging self-reflection, and inspiring change.

Our Offerings Our foundational seminar, the Aspen Executive Seminar on Leadership, Values and the Good Society, is open to the public. Our seminars gather diverse groups of leaders to engage in Socratic dialogue that challenges participants to explore the personal and institutional values that anchor their leadership.

The Justice and Society Seminar, designed primarily but not exclusively for judges and lawyers, probes the tensions surrounding justice, rights, and the exigencies of public policy.

Custom Seminars are designed in partnership with individual organizations to meet their specific professional development needs.

The richness of the conversation at the Executive Seminar gave me the confidence to think more deeply about my place and purpose and about how my actions affect the world within and beyond my own companies.”

—Lucinda Ducalfe Executive Director, Thrive TRM

THE ASPEN INSTITUTE’S

FLAGSHIP PROGRAM 70 YEAR HISTORY

20,000+

PARTICIPANTS

ASPEN GLOBAL LEADERSHIP NETWORK | FELLOWS

What if we activate the talents of our best entrepreneurial leaders to solve the greatest problems in the world?

The Aspen Global Leadership Network creates and activates a worldwide community of values-driven entrepreneurial leaders committed to creating a more just, fair, and equitable society. Through the Fellowships, Fellows in the network are challenged to put their passions, talents, and resources to work to face the most pressing challenges in society.

After going through their Fellowships, our leaders think, act, and lead differently 95% model high-integrity, enlightened leadership.

92% lead their companies or organizations differently.

87% mobilize their resources to confront societal wrongs.

OUR METHOD

GATHER A DIVERSE GROUP

of peers that challenge and support each other through the Fellowship journey and throughout their lives.

CULTIVATE & SHARPEN VALUES

87% engage other Fellows to support, collaborate, and work toward goals.

through transformative, retreat-like seminars, grounded in the time-tested Aspen method of curated readings and moderated dialogue among their cohort

69% have influenced leaders, policies, practices or reforms in their communities.

TURN IDEAS INTO IMPACT

A Critical Mass of Changemakers 3000+ FELLOWS FROM 65 COUNTRIES

3000+ VENTURES LAUNCHED IMPACTING:

14 GEOGRAPHIC AND SECTOR-SPECIFIC FELLOWSHIPS

Quality Education | Good Health and Wellbeing | Decent Work and Economic Growth | Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions | Gender Equality | Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure | Reduced Inequality | Sustainable Cities and Communities

for individuals and society as Fellows practice values-driven, high-integrity leadership through their daily actions, spheres of influence, and ventures.

Africa Leadership Initiative - West Africa Fellow, Patrick Awuha, in front of Ashesi University in Ghana, a university serving 1000s of Africans that developed through the Fellowship experience.

YOUTH PROGRAMS | YOUTH LEADERS

What if we cultivate the talent of rising generations to transform society?

THE ASPEN CHALLENGE Launched in partnership with the Bezos Family Foundation, the Aspen Challenge empowers youth to use their drive, imagination, and sense of global citizenship to solve some of society’s toughest problems.

Each year, the Aspen Challenge partners with an urban school district to bring the competition to a new city.

Twenty high school teams are invited to design and implement a solution to a challenge they feel is most urgent in their community. After eight weeks, they pitch their solutions to a panel of distinguished judges who evaluate the projects based on creativity, feasibility, sustainability, and teamwork. The winning teams are invited to present their work at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

IMPACT AND REACH

8 CITIES

LOS ANGELAS, DENVER, WASHINGTON, CHICAGO, PHILADELPHIA, DALLAS, LOUISVILLE, MIAMI

500+ TEACHERS 2000+ YOUTH PARTICIPANTS MEET OR EXCEED LEARNING GAINS EQUIVALENT TO A FULL YEAR OF COLLEGE IN ONLY EIGHT WEEKS

ASPEN YOUNG LEADERS FELLOWSHIP There is perhaps nothing crueler than presuming that any single opportunity is sufficient to disrupt inequity when we know that it requires opportunities – plural.

AYLF adopts a whole-systems approach to catalyze youth success.

AYLF identifies, cultivates, and amplifies future generations of talent to engage in the values-based leadership essential for transforming their lives and society for the better.

My experience in AYLF was life changing.

I was afforded opportunities that positioned me to chase my dreams and turn them into realities. AYLF makes it possible to help yourself while helping others along the way. They are attentive.

They make sure you have the resources you need to matriculate, and they make it possible for you to believe in yourself.”

—Kyndal Pointer Mississippi-Arkansas Delta Cohort

The Fellowship is a place-based, multi-site program that nurtures a cadre of diverse youth by supporting degree completion, preparing them for workforce success, and prompting them to address the most compelling social, political, and scientific issues facing their communities.

3 COHORTS IN 3 CITIES PER YEAR

INVESTMENT IN YOUNG LEADERS RESULTS IN:

97% COLLEGE COMPLETION 99% JOB PLACEMENT

Enhanced Local Capacity to Deliver Youth Leadership Development Increased Civic Engagement and Community Impact Accelerated Values-Based Leadership Strengthened Collegiate Retention Rates Enhanced Workforce Readiness More Robust & Diverse Local Talent Pools

REACHES 1500+ COMMUNITY MEMBERS PER YEAR

WEAVE: THE SOCIAL FABRIC PROJECT | COMMUNITY LEADERS

What if we shift the culture in the United States to focus on connections rather than divisions?

To solve society’s problems, we must solve our underlying isolation and division, putting relationships ahead of striving for ourselves. We need to rebuild connection and trust in our neighborhoods. Thousands are already doing this quietly in communities everywhere, showing a better way to live.

Weave: The Social Fabric Project exists to support, illuminate and spread their way of life.

Weave aims to create a nation of community builders by:

Identifying and Illuminating these Community Leaders.

Connecting and Supporting Weavers through an online community and Weaver gatherings.

Describing and Spreading Weaver Values and Skills using media, curricula and guides, co-created by Weavers.

Evangelizing the Weaver Culture in partnership with public figures, organizations and businesses.

What it means to Weave...

SINCE MAY 2018

100 SPEECHES ACROSS THE U.S. WITH

300K LISTENERS A fast-growing community

6,000 WEAVERS as of February 2020

3.6 MILLION TED TALK VIEWS ON “THE WEAVER WAY”

“There’s one skill at the center of any healthy family, company, classroom, community, university or nation — the ability to see someone else deeply, to know another person profoundly, to make them feel heard and understood. That is weaving. It is a way of life. We lift others and, in the process, lift our communities and ourselves.”

—David Brooks Founder, Weave: The Social Fabric Project

300-PERSON

gathering in DC that included Weavers, philanthropists, foundation partners, journalists, and academics

A BETTER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

While the challenges that face our world are daunting, they are not insurmountable.

Human-made problems require human-made solutions. It starts with people who have the will to lead, the courage to act, and the creativity to build a better way together.

Join us in the journey to build a more free, just, and equitable society for all.

OUR PROGRAMS ASPEN EXECUTIVE SEMINARS | EXECUTIVE LEADERS

ASPEN GLOBAL LEADERSHIP NETWORK | FELLOWS

THE ASPEN EXECUTIVE SEMINAR

AFRICA LEADERSHIP INITIATIVES - EAST AFRICA

CUSTOM SEMINARS

AFRICA LEADERSHIP INITIATIVES - SOUTH AFRICA

JUSTICE AND SOCIETY SEMINAR

AFRICA LEADERSHIP INITIATIVES - WEST AFRICA

YOUTH PROGRAMS | YOUTH LEADERS THE ASPEN CHALLENGE ASPEN YOUNG LEADERS FELLOWSHIP WEAVE: THE SOCIAL FABRIC PROJECT | COMMUNITY LEADERS

CENTRAL AMERICA LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE CHINA FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM CIVIL SOCIETY FELLOWSHIP FINANCE LEADERS FELLOWSHIP HEALTH INNOVATORS FELLOWSHIP HENRY CROWN FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM KAMALNAYAN BAJAJ FELLOWSHIP LIBERTY FELLOWSHIP MIDDLE EAST LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE PAHARA - ASPEN EDUCATION FELLOWSHIP RODEL FELLOWSHIPS IN PUBLIC LEADERSHIP

The Leadership Division of the Aspen Institute builds off its 70-year history of developing people across generations and place to become more effective, values-based leaders.

Today, the Division supports the life-long development of leaders through seminar offerings, youth programs, Fellowship programs, and grassroots initiatives that strengthen our social fabric. These programs create communities of changemakers who are willing and able to make an impact in the lives of others and build a more free, just, and equitable society.

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