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Authentic Leadership Institute
Professor Roxane Adler Hickey
Contemporary leadership requires individuals who not only inspire and guide others, but who also exercise sound judgment, act with integrity, and understand leadership as a responsibility to the common good. The ALI invites students to explore leadership theory and practice through the integrated lenses of authentic and civic leadership, examining how values, character, and wisdom inform leadership across formal and informal settings. Students consider what it means to lead with purpose, grounding leadership in service, trust, and responsibility.
With a focus on bringing their genuine and intersecting identities into their work, students intentionally develop their own leadership approach while considering the ethical and civic implications of their decisions. Through reflection, dialogue, and application, students examine how their leadership contributes to communities, institutions, and democratic life.
The 2026 program is offered during Â鶹Æƽâ°æ’s Year of Civic Leadership, providing a timely context for this work.
- Civic leadership at Â鶹Æƽâ°æ rests on the conviction that knowledge carries responsibility, and that wisdom, formed over time, must be placed in service to the common good. From its founding, the university and its people have played a formative role in the life of the republic, understanding leadership as a moral charge — shaped by history, guided by reason, and entrusted to each generation in turn.
- At Â鶹Æƽâ°æ, civic leaders listen across difference, reason with care, and act with integrity. They cultivate trust, sustain partnerships, and commit themselves to work that endures beyond the moment. Rooted in the values of Service and Integrity, civic leadership calls each of us to steward our communities — and the nation — with humility, courage, and reverence for what is perpetual and universal.