Cultivating Leadership: A Primer for Academic Theatre Programs

Leadership in higher education has and continues to evolve and adapt. Administrators grapple with the rising pressures created by increased competition in enrollment, changing student demographics, shifting budget revenues, and social upheavals combined with calls for greater transparency, financial accountability, and global sustainability. As a natural bridge between the university and society, successful theatre and performing arts programs have risen to meet these challenges. Mark Heckler and Barbara Korner, founders of the ATHE Leadership Institute, have brought together presidents, academic deans, and program chairs to discuss keys to transformational leadership in higher education. The contributors of the book provide their unique approaches and best practices for meeting the needs of theatre and performing arts programs by developing academic leadership, creating strategic plans to achieve current and future student and university priorities, negotiating with higher administration and faculty, budgeting for department priorities, and identifying emerging connections between programs and the world. As leaders heed the call to serve, this book provides theoretical and practical tools for cultivating leaders across the academy.