About the Contributors

The Research Center for Leadership in Action (RCLA) approaches leadership as a collective achievement. It supports a shift in attention from leaders to leadership and works with practitioners to build knowledge from the ground up. RCLA promotes practice-grounded, social-science based, interdisciplinary research that helps strengthen both the theory and the practice of leadership in public service. RCLA conducts research on leadership; creates customized leadership development programs that emphasize reflective practice and action learning; and creates structured opportunities for leaders to come together to explore the complexities of their leadership challenges and collectively advance their work. RCLA does this work across the public and nonprofit sectors in the U.S. and globally. RCLA's partners have included the Ford Foundation, Open Society Institute, Annie E. Casey Foundation, AVINA Foundation, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, and Accenture. Based at the NYU Wagner School of Public Service, RCLA was launched in August 2003 with core support from the Ford Foundation. Please visit www.wagner.nyu.edu/leadership for more information.

The Mainstream Media Project (MMP) is a nonprofit, public education organization that utilizes mainstream broadcast media to raise public awareness about new approaches to longstanding social, environmental, economic, and political problems. MMP produces A World of Possibilities, an award-winning, nationally and internationally syndicated radio program of bridge-building, solution-oriented conversations with analysts, social innovators, and leading thinkers on critical national and global issues. MMP's collaboration with RLCA began in 2002. Its purpose was to help publicize RCLA's findings and bring the work of Leadership for a Changing World award recipients to mainstream audiences, as well as the academic community through media alerts, media trainings, campaigns, and interviews on commercial and public radio stations throughout the lower forty-eight states. Visit http://www.mainstream-media.net/ for more information.

Leadership for a Changing World (LCW) is an awards and recognition program of the Ford Foundation that recognizes and supports community leaders known in their own communities but not known broadly. In addition, it seeks to shift the public conversation about authentic leadership to include the kinds of leaders participating in this program. From Fall 2001 to Fall 2005, the Ford Foundation recognized 17-20 leaders and leadership groups per year. Award recipients receive $115,000 and participate in semiannual program meetings, collaborative research, and a strategic communications effort. LCW is a signature program of the Ford Foundation in partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Communities and RCLA, NYU Wagner. Visit http://www.leadershipforchange.org for more information.

Bethany Godsoe, RCLA Executive Director
Sonia Ospina, RCLA Faculty Director and LCW Research Director
Amparo Hofmann-Pinilla, RCLA Deputy Director and LCW Program Director
Marian Krauskopf, Former RCLA Co-Director**
Angie Chan, Former LCW Program Coordinator/Educasting Study Guide Project Manager
Sanjiv Rao, Former Research Assistant/Educasting Study Guide Writer
AiLun Ku, LCW Program Coordinator

** Special thanks to Marian Krauskopf, former RCLA Co-Director, for initiating the Educasting project with Mainstream Media.

Mark Sommer, Executive Director and host, A World of Possibilities

 

Robin Pagliuco, Educasting Coordinator

Michael Schwartz, Production Engineer

Chuck Rogers, Senior Producer, A World of Possibilities