n Tuesday, November 23, 2004 , just before Thanksgiving, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nan Ottenritter, Manager of the Leading Forward project of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). Despite her hectic work schedule prior to the long holiday weekend, Nan found nearly an hour to discuss a project that has become incredibly important to her, to AACC, and most importantly to the nation's community college system. Drawing upon the rich knowledge base that she has developed over the past year and a half managing Leading Forward , Nan talked about the importance of the community college system revisiting its history and thinking carefully about who and how people should be prepared to lead community colleges in the future.

Leading Forward was launched by AACC in July, 2003, with a planning grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation . Drawing upon information available on the AACC Leading Forward website at http://www.ccleadership.org/ , we know that "by 2007, the United States will need 700 new community college presidents and campus heads, 1,800 new leaders in upper administrative positions, and 30,000 new faculty." Finding and developing the human resources that will be critical to continuing to build and deliver community college education is vitally important to the future of our nation.

To carry out the project, AACC has engaged in a number of linked activities that are enumerated on the website, including the following:

Some of the most interesting and insightful aspects of my interview with Nan Ottenritter ( Nan ), appear below.

Debra: Why did AACC launch the Leading Forward initiative?

Nan: The main reason we launched Leading Forward was the demographic shift in terms of retiring community college presidents, CEOs, and mid-level managers leaving their administrative posts. So, the big push had to do with shifting demographics. However, I also have to point to a passion for the community college mission and a strong commitment to community colleges sharing their rich history and experiences, and not wanting to lose that. Community colleges don't want to stay fixed in the past, but they also don't want to lose their history. Also, as I've gotten into this more, I've realized this emphasis on leadership is a blessing in disguise. We have an opportunity for all of us - the collective "we" - to shape community college leadership for the future!

Debra: What is the current status of the Leading Forward initiative?

Nan: The seed is planted. We gathered such good data from our summits during 2004. As I consider our work, two words stand out in my head that are reflected in our grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation: They are "convene" and "catalyze." AACC hopes to convene and catalyze the field of community college leadership on a national scale. Likewise, we see community college leaders as conveners and catalyzers within their colleges and their communities. These functions are linked to very special skill sets that deserve further attention and exploration. So, the idea of community college leaders as conveners and catalyzers is at the very center of our work. By the time this is printed participants from the summits will have received an online survey on the competencies identified by participants and synthesized for AACC by ACT. Once we've heard from the participants and we believe we have a clear understanding of the groups' thoughts, we'll make the competencies public - and we'll start to use them.

We're at the very beginning of putting together the leadership plan to help advance community college leadership. The plan could include an array of online support modules, support services, leadership development modules, eportfolios, etc. We'll also be convening face-to-face meetings to catalyze our thinking and continue to learn from each other, and we'll be enhancing our information dissemination capacity.

Debra: Where is Leading Forward heading in 2005?

Nan: We're getting a good idea of what the competencies should be and what AACC can do to facilitate their dissemination, including the networking and collaborative work that needs to happen. During the next several months we'll be finalizing the competencies while working toward securing a continuation grant from Kellogg, to begin funding in the summer of 2005, for the implementation phase.

The intent of our planning grant with Kellogg was to listen, learn, and come up with a viable plan; we feel we've been very successful at achieving the first two goals and are now hard at work on creating a viable, multi-faceted plan to advance community college leadership.

Debra: Has AACC's work with Leading Forward confirmed the importance of leadership preparation?

Nan: Absolutely! What we're doing is so important. We are more convinced now than ever!

Debra: Have you learned anything particularly surprising that you didn't anticipate at the beginning of the project?

Nan: Yes, we've learned just how rich the concept and practice of leadership is. This initiative goes well beyond a single program focused on preparing managers and leaders. It encompasses creating leadership friendly environments on campuses, supporting emerging leaders, and undertaking a whole gamut of activities to support not only the development of leaders, but also their actual practice of leading their institutions.

Let me give you an example. I'm going to go to Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) in a few weeks to be part of a team reviewing the fabulous leadership development program that PTK offers students. This is an award-winning program that began with a grant from Kellogg. When I attend, I'll not be thinking of leadership solely for CEOs - for gosh sakes, our students are students. And yet because leadership cuts across the institution, potentially involving all levels of college "citizens," I'll be thinking of leadership as something that applies to everyone! A colleague in Alaska reminded me recently of this, pointing out how our community college students become community and college leaders, especially in rural areas in large western states like Alaska . We know the importance of leadership for everyone, but because of Leading Forward, now we know it more fully.

Debra: Which of the competencies stated as part of the Leading Forward competency framework is especially important, and which require the most change to traditional ways of viewing leadership development?

Nan: Community college advocacy has emerged as a particularly important competency. It was highlighted by our 2002 Leadership Task Force and reappeared in 2004 when ACT analyzed our leadership summit data. Every stakeholder group we involved in the consensus building process brought up the importance of community college advocacy. By this we mean valuing and promoting open access, student success, diversity, inclusion, equity, excellence, teaching, and learning. We also mean advocating the community college mission; advancing lifelong learning and supporting a learner-supported environment; and representing the community college in the local community, the broader educational community, and in various levels of government. Several groups focused on the criticality of a strong community college presence in the future, and they say an essential skill set as one that focuses on community college leaders knowing how to advocate.

Debra: Can you elaborate on other competencies that have emerged at this time?

Nan: The one that comes off the top of my head, partly due to Leading Forward but partly due to my experience facilitating the President's Academy Summer Institute, is the skill set that deals with partnerships and fund raising - resource management. This area seems to be getting increased priority. At least for CEOs these concepts are becoming more important over time.

The other competency areas that emerged were organizational strategy, communication, collaboration, and professionalism. As leaders refine their leadership skills set, they will find themselves, quite naturally, focusing more heavily on different competencies at different points in their career.

Debra: Who are some of the key partners that you're talking about when you mention the importance of partnerships, funding raising, and resource management?

Nan: Partnering with K-12 and other dimensions of education, including other segments of higher education, is one area of focus. For example, dual enrollment has increased significantly in recent years. Blurring boundaries between K-12 and community college, including Tech Prep and seamless transfer programs, is critically important for us to understand and manage. High school students have an increasing presence on our campuses. So clearly, collaboration along the lines of education is very important. A similar picture can be painted for the connections on the other side of a community college education, those with four year colleges and universities.

Collaboration with business and community partners is also critical. If diversity is as important as we believe it is, we need to learn from diverse organizations that are different than our own. And we need to work closely with community groups because we are community colleges.

Let's talk about resource management for a moment. Providing for the professional development and advancement of all staff is one leadership task under resource management. Colleges can do this in a variety of ways. Information Technology professionals can be trained through arrangements with technology providers. Emerging leaders can be trained in a "grow your own" program developed by a community college or a program developed by the state and offered to all community colleges in the state. Potential community colleges leaders can attend local Chamber of Commerce leadership development programs, enriching their knowledge of the community while, at the same time, educating community members about the local community college. The list of possibilities is endless.

Debra: What issues emerged through Leading Forward of particular importance to women and minorities?

Nan: I believe we need to look more closely at the identity development of leaders, along with their personal development. Stay with me here, because I will get to addressing women and minorities. We need to think about the intersection of leaders' identity development [related to work], along with their other identities. You see, there are times when you value being with people who are like you and times when you value being with people who are different. Your ability to respond depends, in part, on where you are in your multiple identity development processes.

To illustrate: consider Harvard University 's range of programs using problem-based case studies. The attendees are leaders from colleges and universities throughout the country. Community college leaders have an opportunity to learn from college and university leaders who operate in different contexts and think differently from themselves. At the same time AACC's Presidents Academy Summer Institute, designed for community college presidents, provides an excellent opportunity to enhance identity development through interaction with others who operate in fairly similar contexts.

I believe we all need to think about diversity and support identity-oriented programs that enhance others' identity development as leaders who are also "x." You've heard the phrases: "a woman president" or "a Hispanic chancellor." There are definite places for leadership programs like the ones sponsored by AACC's American Association for Women in Community Colleges and the National Institute for Leadership Development, the National Community College Hispanic Council, and the National Council on Black American Affairs. Our Councils are an important part of this picture. AACC has them at the table because they provide a wonderful mix of cultures.

Through communications and experiences with a range of people, we learn more about ourselves and how to become effective as leaders. To that end, it is also important for women and minorities to intentionally seek out opportunities to work with a wide range of people. This is a both/and situation.

Debra: What else have we learned about diversity through Leading Forward?

Our demographic snapshot suggests gender is rather stable among community college executive leaders, whereas the number of Hispanic and African American leaders is increasing slightly. We've looked at our student populations relative to the number of leaders of color, and we recognize that greater alignment here might be more desirable. To educate yourself about the demographic shift of race and ethnicity among of community college presidents, go to http://www.ccleadership.org/resource_center/demo_snapshots.htm.

In reference to the competencies, right now we need to take a broad cut at the information, identifying the general competencies. However, down the road we may want to come back and slice our data in numerous ways, including looking at the implications of the leadership competencies by gender, race/ethnicity, career stage, maturity level, etc.

Debra: What do you recommend local community colleges do to support emerging leaders?

Nan: Well, there is the purely logistical management of resources. Set aside a budget for professional development and release time. One of the recommendations in The Knowledge Net: A Report of the New Expeditions Initiative states "Community Colleges should allocate at least two percent of their annual operating budgets to the professional development and training of their personnel." These resources could be used to send people to leadership development experiences or to support their development at home.

Consider being more pro-active in developing your own leaders by offering local programs that people can attend. We are interested in "grow your own" programs in which community colleges have created leadership friendly environments and where leadership development is woven into the tapestry of the college culture. This could mean supporting a brown bag meeting at regular intervals where emerging leaders talk together on a critical issue. It could also mean a formalized program offered by the college.

To some extent it's a no brainer! Invite emerging leaders to become engaged; invite them to be engaged in a leadership capacity such as working on a task force or managing a process that requires working with people. It is so important for community colleges to form a supportive environment and encourage participation. We believe this issue is so important that our first publication from the Leading Forward project will focus on "grow your own" and "leadership friendly" programs offered by local community colleges.

Debra: I believe this issue is particularly important too. Often I hear from community college faculty and administrators who want to engage in leadership development but they have little or minimal support from their own colleges. Will AACC encourage "grow your own" and other such programs such as passing a policy statement on "leadership friendly" environments?

Nan: I would like to see that happen. We would like to see community colleges advocate for grow your own leadership development approaches and I will work to present a policy statement to the AACC Board of Directors.

Debra: In closing, do you have any particular recommendations for Illinois community colleges?

Nan: Only that it's a wonderful time to address what could be perceived as a negative thing - our increased need for leaders - because it's an opportunity embedded in a challenge. Over the past several years I've come to believe that this is a very special time in our history, and we need to enjoy preparing our new leadership and helping leaders and colleges think short-term and long-term. This is a time when we have an opportunity to be intentional about ourselves and our future leadership. If we accept the challenge and become more intentional about leadership, I believe we'll also be more intentional about moving community colleges forward. All of us who work here at AACC are proud of working with and for community colleges. It's a real privilege to do our work!

Nan Ottenritter is Manager of the Leading Forward project at AACC. She can be reached via phone at 202-728-0200 x 230 or e-mail at nottenritter@aacc.nche.edu.

Debra D. Bragg is Director of OCCRL and Professor of Higher Education and Coordinator of the Community College Executive Leadership program at UIUC. She can be reached at dbragg@uiuc.edu .