UARK Leaders Program Has Lasting Impact on Campus

University of Arkansas

Sarah Bemis, left, assistant director and assistant professor with the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing, and Weston Wilkerson, associate professor of theatre.

The U of A recently completed a call for nominations for the 2023-24 cohort of UARK Leaders, which will begin this October. 

UARK Leaders is a six-month leadership development program designed to help university leaders grow in alignment with the leadership competencies of strategic thinking, leading a team and balancing advocacy. During the program, employees across campus collaborate to ensure the success of the university's land-grant mission, vision and values. Each cohort is composed of faculty and staff with two or more direct reports and who oversee an organizational unit or large-scale projects.  

Goals of the program include: 

• Elevating employee's leadership competencies to develop an administrative leadership pipeline  
• Providing a formalized learning program for leaders to grow in their roles and lead teams effectively 
• Structuring an action learning project to develop problem-solving, presentation and networking skills 

UARK Leaders Program Provides Mentorship, Connections and Exposure 
"I signed up for the program to see what leadership outside of my own department entailed, and to take advantage of opportunities for connections across campus," said 2022-23 cohort member Sarah Bemis, assistant director and assistant professor with the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing. "I was able to understand the university on a deeper level, and it gave me access to U of A executive leadership, so I was able to ask questions about the 'why' behind university operations and decisions." 

Bemis was also able to meet and learn from Celia Swanson, an executive coach for the program who is recognized as the first female executive vice president at Walmart, about being a woman in a leadership role and how to handle a variety of situations. 

"Being able to receive personalized coaching from an established leader was one of my favorite parts about the program," she said. "I gained valuable insights about my own leadership effectiveness and ability to positively impact our community." 

Bemis also stays in touch with other members of the cohort and will discuss ideas with them for workplace programs and practices. 

"I'm proud that the university has invested in this program so that leaders have the opportunity to form relationships outside of their own units," she said. "The outcome of these relationships is the development of more meaningful collaborations and a built-in support network for leadership sustainability. I sincerely appreciate the university saying, 'I want to make a personal investment in you' through this program." 

Weston Wilkerson, associate professor with the Department of Theatre, also participated in the cohort and appreciated the leadership team's engagement and positive reception to the group's recommendations. 

"I was very impressed with how university leadership treated me, being present and willing to value my opinion and the feedback from the group," Wilkerson said. "Our current leadership worked very well together during my time in UARK Leaders in an 'iron sharpens iron' type of way — sharing ideas for improvements through their areas of expertise." 

Applying Learnings Within the Program and Beyond  
Bemis said she is proud to have been part of a cohort group that has left a lasting impact on the university by applying their learnings to real challenges the university faces as they tackled campus-critical issues through action-learning projects.  

"I believe we helped to identify process improvements and problem-solving techniques for the university, such as harnessing new technological developments to enhance our status as a data-driven organization," she said. "We may influence future projects by what we presented." 

One of the projects the group worked on during the year was to assess classroom and office space throughout campus. Beyond the program, Bemis said she also strives to implement practices that she participated in during UARK Leaders into her role at the School of Nursing. 

"I learned so much about myself during the Birkman (Method's) self-assessment, and now I actually want to have our department and students use it as part of their development," she said. 

While the program offers plenty of professional development, both Bemis and Wilkerson encourage those going through the program to not be intimidated — and simply have fun too. 

"We're all here to learn from each other and develop ourselves to reach our goals, and it's a very safe and exciting environment," Bemis said. "It's hands-down the leadership experience that I've enjoyed the most since I started working here in 2021." 

Several members of the cohort have received promotions since participating in the program, as they were able to implement practical leadership competencies learned from UARK Leaders into their roles. 

"I was able to work with the chancellor, vice chancellors, the provost and others that I knew of but had never interacted with, so naturally there is a little bit of anxiety — it reminded me of my first year at the university, where I was learning how to contribute," Wilkerson said. 

"A paradox of higher education is being focused on searching internationally for people in specific disciplines who can bring their expertise here, but our shared governance means we all must have the capacity to see beyond the silo of our departments and to expand our perspective further than our own area of focus to see things from other points of view. As a faculty member in particular, this program fills an important need for the university." 

The upcoming UARK Leaders cohort will conclude in April of 2024. Nominations for the 2024-25 cohort will be accepted next summer.  

"The UARK Leaders Program is a great example of our investment in our people to enable them to grow and thrive at work," said Ashley Ingram, director of talent development. "The success of the program is the direct result of the efforts of the entire Talent Development Team, and the coordinator of the UARK Leaders program, Judith Tavano. Individually and collectively, each team member contributed to ensuring the effective design, smooth delivery and achievement of the program outcomes since its inception in 2020."