The Peter Lougheed Leadership College is reaching a major milestone — the recruitment of a new principal. The Right Honorable Kim Campbell, the college’s founding principal, will be ending her term on June 30, 2018. Under her leadership, the college has worked with faculties across the university to develop an enriched, interdisciplinary certificate program for undergraduates that is now recruiting for its fourth cohort. With a focus on experiential learning, Peter Lougheed Scholars have engaged in a combination of learning experiences, including courses, workshops, capstone projects, and individually designed stretch experiences in a range of sectors, both close to home and across the globe. The college has also developed an intensive professional development program for the 36 teaching fellows associated with the college.
In anticipation of Kim Campbell’s departure and the search for a new principal, I commissioned Peter McKinnon to review the college and prepare a report on challenges and opportunities, which I shared with you in May 2017. In the months since the release of that report, I have been working with a small working group to consider closely the report’s observations and recommendations and develop a set of proposed next steps for the college that will guide the selection and responsibilities of a new principal. The working group consisted of deans from key PLLC faculties (Arts, Business, Science, ALES, and Augustana), along with representatives from the Students’ Union and the Provost’s Office.
At General Faculties Council on Jan 29, we presented our recommendations. In summary, we see many opportunities to build on the strong foundations now in place. The undergraduate leadership certificate program will continue to develop, offering students and teaching fellows unique opportunities for education and training in leadership. At the same time, we propose that the college should also evolve into an umbrella leadership organization at the University of Alberta. With this expanded vision, the college would support and facilitate interaction and alignment among existing faculty and unit leadership initiatives on campus, in addition to its current programs, and provide the catalyst to establish new leadership initiatives. The goal would be to maximize synergies between existing programs and minimize duplication.
Developing and leading this expanded vision for the PLLC presents an exciting opportunity for the new principal. I am pleased to report that all of the members of the working group have agreed to stay on and form the search committee for the principal. A representative from the Graduate Students’ Association has also joined the committee.
The goal of our search is to find an individual — ideally from within our own U of A community — with a passion for leadership as well as innovative and strategic ideas for building on the college’s strong foundations in undergraduate programming to become a hub of a wide variety of leadership initiatives across our campuses.
A detailed job ad will be available on our Careers website. The search committee would be pleased to accept both nominations and applications for the role. We will begin reviewing applications on March 1, 2018. To nominate an individual, please contact Bobbi Schiestel in confidence at bobbi.schiestel@ualberta.ca.
On behalf of the members of the search committee, thank you for engaging in this process and helping us in the selection of a new principal for the PLLC.
David H. Turpin
President and Vice Chancellor
Chair of the Search Committee for PLLC Principal