Join Our PL Circles
The ILA Public Leadership Member Community (PL) is excited to announce its new “PL Circles”, which are smaller communities of practice for members with common interests and goals. Evidence shows that intentional communities like these offer individuals a balance of support and development opportunities, plus can collectively achieve more together.
We invite you to join one of the five circles that will meet virtually once per month from April through September. Those who can attend the ILA Global Conference in Prague from October 15-18 can meet in-person to continue the conversations.
To Join:
- See the descriptions below
- Email the PL Circle facilitators by Friday, April 11, 2025.
- Space is limited
- Circles begin in mid-April.
PL Circle Groups Available
Explore the available PL Circles below. Before signing up, please make sure the session dates and times fit your schedule. You will have the option to select multiple cohorts in case your first choice reaches capacity.
The Global Nonprofit Sector for Social Change
Meeting Dates and Times: The fourth Wednesday of the month from 4:30 – 5:30 PM ET (April 23, May 28, June 25, July 23, August 27, and September 24). For those who can attend, we will meet October 15-18 at the ILA Global Conference in Prague.
Number of Participants: Up to 8 people (excluding facilitators)
Facilitators: Patricia A. Clary, Ph.D. (patclary6776@gmail.com) and Lori J. Peters, Ph.D. (lorijpeters1@gmail.com)
Description of The Global Nonprofit Sector for Social Change Circle
The Global Nonprofit Sector for Social Change Circle is a six-month, interactive forum designed for leaders, changemakers, scholars, and practitioners seeking to deepen their understanding of how nonprofits drive global impact.
Each session features a guest expert from the global nonprofit sector, offering insights into pressing challenges and innovative solutions. Participants will engage in facilitated discussions, leadership exercises, and practical applications, fostering a collaborative space for learning and action.
Topics include the role of global nonprofits in social change, collaboration across borders, sustainable financial models, advocacy and policy influence, and the role of digital innovation in driving social change. The final session will focus on leadership lessons and the future of global nonprofits.
Whether you are a nonprofit professional, an aspiring leader, or simply passionate about social change, this circle offers a unique opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and gain valuable knowledge to enhance your impact.
To join this circle or to ask questions, please email us.
Facilitators:
Patricia A. Clary, Ph.D.
Lori J. Peters, Ph.D.
Facilitator Bios:
Patricia A. Clary is a seasoned leader, scholar, and facilitator with a distinguished career in the public sector and nonprofit space. With over 40 years of experience serving on 45+ boards and commissions, she brings governance, strategic planning, and organizational leadership expertise. Holding a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership, Patricia is a dedicated advocate for collaborative leadership, community engagement, and evidence-based decision-making. She navigates complex societal challenges as a consultant, columnist, and presenter, fostering inclusive dialogues that drive meaningful change. Her work spans nonprofit service organizations, economic development initiatives, and public sector governance. Patricia’s passion lies in convening diverse voices, cultivating innovative solutions, and empowering individuals to strengthen their impact. She is a past chair of ILA’s Public Leadership Member Community.
Dr. Lori J. Peters is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Holy Family University in the School of Business and Technology. She has 30 years of experience leading, teaching, and coaching in the non-profit sector. She owns the SOARing International, a coaching and consulting firm, and has extensive international development work, primarily in Ghana. She is passionate about Change Leadership and advocating for and promoting equality, inclusion, and justice for the disadvantaged. She has a doctorate in Strategic Leadership with Strategic Foresight concentration.
Social Entrepreneurship
Meeting Dates and Times: The last Wednesday of the month from 5-6 PM ET (April 30, May 28, June 25, July 30, August 27, and September 24)
Number of Participants: Up to 5 people (excluding facilitator)
Facilitator: Valencia Gabay (vgabay@gmail.com)
Description of the Social Entrepreneurship Circle
The Social Entrepreneurship Public Leadership Circle is a co-learning space for leaders, academics, and practitioners who want to explore how social entrepreneurship intersects with public leadership and social change. This Circle is designed for those interested in becoming change-makers in community. This space invites collaboration, reflection, and goal setting opportunities.
Each monthly session unpacks key topics, including:
- The role of social entrepreneurship in public leadership
- Identifying community needs and systems thinking
- Designing sustainable business models for impact
- Measuring and communicating social impact
- Funding strategies and financial sustainability
- Leadership styles that drive social innovation
- Note: Topics may change
Participants will set personal or professional goals, engage in peer accountability, and explore ways to integrate social impact into their work. Through interactive discussions, shared resources, and real-world examples, this circle offers a supportive environment to turn ideas into action.
To join this circle or to ask questions, please email us.
Facilitator:
Valencia Gabay
Facilitator Bio:
Valencia is an academic professional, learning experience designer, and organizational leadership scholar dedicated to advancing innovation in learning. She integrates expertise across disciplines to design and develop educational programs that align with organizational strategic goals. Her work has been instrumental in the design of financial education programs, and she has successfully cultivated and maintained corporate, nonprofit, and academic partnerships to drive program implementation and collective impact.
Before transitioning into program development, Valencia served as an academic counselor, recruiter, and orientation coordinator at the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida. As both a scholar and leadership practitioner, she has presented at conferences, contributed to thought leadership, and co-authored works on leading positive change in higher education, inclusive leadership, group coaching and mentoring, and communities of practice. Valencia completed her undergraduate and MEd from the University of Florida. She completed her PhD in Organizational Leadership from Indiana Wesleyan University.
Everyday Public Leadership
Meeting Dates and Times: One Friday per month from April – September 2025. Initial meeting on April 11 from 10-11:30 AM CST. Then we will continue from June to October on Fridays. Hours will be determined after an initial assessment of participants’ locations.
Number of Participants: Up to 12 people
Facilitators: Lucas Díaz (ldiaz5@tulane.edu) and Kehan Shams (keyhan@ksu.edu)
Description of the Everyday Public Leadership Circle
The Everyday Public Leadership Circle focuses on the different ways that people, acting as individuals, engage in change work that benefits the common good. A particular focus of this circle is how this leadership practice shows up in systemic change work. Systemic change work can result in the creation of policies, budget reallocations, programmatic design changes, new budget allocations, and more within government and pseudo government bodies (such as private companies contracted to deliver public goods, and other similar private-public partnerships). Public leadership practice aimed a systemic change can fall within a broad spectrum that moves from informal actions to participation in formal structures.
Everyday public leadership is practiced by people not typically studied because they may not represent large or important organizations. Often, they don’t represent an organization at all, relying solely on their individual drive to push for systemic change. We hope to identify and support a community of scholars and practitioners who find that most spaces on public leadership (and other leadership lenses) leaves them feeling not quite at home. Our goal is to advance knowledge on this area of focus and help develop each other’s abilities to speak about, study, and advance awareness of this aspect of public leadership.
Facilitators:
Lucas Díaz, PhD and Kehan Shams, PhD
Facilitator Bios:
Dr. Díaz is the Assistant Director for Research, Evaluation and Curriculum at Tulane University’s Center for Public Service. Since 2000, Dr. Díaz has worked in non-profit management, community engagement and organizing, government-based public participation programs and policies, leadership development, and non-profit fundraising. He co-founded and led Puentes New Orleans, a non-profit organization serving the Latinx community in 2007, then served as the first director of the Mayor’s Neighborhood Engagement Office for the City of New Orleans from 2011 to 2013. Today Dr. Díaz works both in and out of academia on community engagement and public leadership and activism education and organizing.
Dr. Shams is a Research Assistant Professor at the Staley School of Leadership at Kansas State University. He is also the Assistant Director of Third Floor Research, a joint research initiative between the Kansas Leadership Center and the Staley School of Leadership. He earned the 2024 Fredric M. Jablin Doctoral Dissertation Award, sponsored by the ILA and the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond. This annual award recognizes a scholar whose dissertation demonstrates substantial insights and implications for the field of leadership. Shams is the Chair-Elect of the ILA’s public leadership member community.
Higher Education Assessment
Meeting Dates and Times: The last Tuesday of the month from 2-3:30 PM ET (April 29, May 27, June 24, July 29, August 26, and September 30).
Number of Participants: Up to 7 people
Facilitators: Ariel Kaufman (alkaufm2@wisc.edu), Keyhan Shams (keyhan@ksu.edu), Chrys Egan (cnegan@salisbury.edu)
Description of the Higher Education Assessment Circle
We invite leadership colleagues in higher education to join this circle, where we will each bring our assessment and program evaluation projects. Our aim is to create space for group members to share these projects in a supportive, knowledgeable group to help us advance our work. We will provide time for feedback from the group for those wishing to share their projects. You can also attend without sharing your work to offer supportive feedback and learn from our conversation.
We welcome you for all aspects of higher education assessment, whether public or private institutions, academic or research programs, student affairs, co-curricular programs, and more. Questions to explore include: What assessment best practices do you recommend? What are program evaluation pitfalls to avoid? Are you working with students, staff, faculty, and/or community? What types of assessment strategies and platforms are people using? What is our purpose for assessment and evaluation? What are you measuring? Who are you reporting to? How are you communicating results?
To join this circle or to ask questions, please email us.
Facilitators:
Ariel Kaufman, Keyhan Shams, Chrys Egan
Facilitator Bios:
Ariel Kaufman, M.S., has served as a student leadership development specialist and assessment and research specialist at the Center for Leadership & Involvement, in the division of student affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work as a scholar practitioner in student affairs, academic units, campus community partnerships, and collaboratively across units with students, staff, faculty, and community partners. In addition to 18 years in higher education, she has worked in the nonprofit sector in programming and organizational consulting. She is also very active in the International Leadership Association, organizing sessions and events, reviewing, and serving as chair and on the core leadership team of ILA’s Public Leadership member community. She holds a master’s degree in educational leadership and policy analysis.
Dr. Shams is a Research Assistant Professor at the Staley School of Leadership at Kansas State University. He is also the Assistant Director of Third Floor Research, a joint research initiative between the Kansas Leadership Center and the Staley School of Leadership. He earned the 2024 Fredric M. Jablin Doctoral Dissertation Award, sponsored by the ILA and the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond. This annual award recognizes a scholar whose dissertation demonstrates substantial insights and implications for the field of leadership. Shams is the Chair-Elect of the ILA’s public leadership member community.
Dr. Chrys Egan is the Fulton School of Liberal Arts Associate Dean, Interim Director of the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence, and a Professor of Communication at Salisbury University. She is Chair of the International Leadership Association’s Public Leadership Community, and Past Chair/President of the Women and Leadership Community, the Popular Culture Association in the South, and the Maryland Communication Association. She has over 40 academic and 50 popular press publications on communication, leadership, and culture. She is co-editor of the Pathways into the Political Arena book, Merits journal on “Changing Realities for Women and Work,” and the Transformative Women Leaders book series. Her awards include the Maryland Top 100 Women (twice), and ILA Women and Leadership Outstanding Practice with Local Impact.
Explore Public Leadership During Times of Diminishing Democracies
Meeting Dates and Times: The last Wednesday of the month from 2-3:30 PM CST (April 30, May 28, June 25, July 30, August 27, and September 24)
Number of Participants: Up to 25 people
Facilitators: Rhonda McClellan (rmcclellan@uca.edu) and Malcolm North (mnorth@fielding.edu)
Description of the Explore Public Leadership During Times of Diminishing Democracies Circle
Meeting Dates and Times: (Once per month April – September 2025)
- Wednesday, April 30th, 2-3:30 PM CST —Introduction to the Project and current leadership tension
- Wednesday, May 28, 2-3:30 PM CST — Co-creating: Learning from PL in the field
- Wednesday, June 25, 2-3:30 PM CST — Identifying frameworks and purpose/RQs
- Wednesday, July 30, 2-3:30 PM CST — Co-generating Methodology and Design
- Wednesday, August 27, 2-3:30 PM CST — Co-generating Setting, Participant Selection Process
- Wednesday September 24, 2-3:30 PM CST — Preparing for IRB, Setting up Data Storage Spaces
For those who can attend, we will meet October 15-18 at the ILA Global Conference in Prague.
Circle Description:
Join a dynamic series of meaningful discussions aimed at resisting the global trend of diminishing democracies through investigating the wisdom of public leaders. In an era that lacks shared governance and where collective voices are dismissed to undermine civic agency, we seek to foster actionable strategies for reclaiming participatory governance in research and practice for public leadership. We will identify these strategies from global public leaders and through a collaborative research project with the ILA’s public leadership learning community members.
During our learning circles, we will explore and share knowledge related to understanding and resisting autocratic shifts. We will discuss issues faced by leaders that understand the role civic education plays in cultivating an engaged public, and design ways to promote collective agency to build coalitions that transcend ideological divides. Through these discussions, we will identify pathways to enhance civic agency, reestablish democratic norms, and cultivate cultures of inclusive decision-making. Our discussions aim to revitalize the power of deliberative democracy, community-led policymaking, strategies for countering misinformation, and the role of technology in democratic participation- all within the framework of collective governance. We will identify a framework for our global research project.
Additionally, throughout the learning circles, members will design and carry out an investigation of public leaders and their collective efforts to combat authoritarian leadership and unilateral decision making. Members will co-author instruments that can assist in the collection of interview and survey data with public leaders. Our learning circle members will build on collective wisdom, shared purpose, and inclusive governance.
Join us, through a collective global research project, in shaping a democracy that truly belongs to all, not just a few. To join this circle or to ask questions, please email us.
Facilitators:
Rhonda McClellan, EdD and Malcolm North, PhD
Facilitator Bios:
Rhonda McClellan is a senior qualitative researcher, interested in the power of engaged communities. Rhonda has orchestrated and co-authored graduate student and national-level research, with individuals and large teams. She has been a long-term attendee of the ILA and has built networks within ILA’s public leadership learning community. She looks forward to strengthening these relationships through this proposed joint global research project. The topic of collective leadership and empowered citizenries has been the topic of her graduate instruction and publications. Rhonda values the resistance to authoritarian leadership and hierarchical bureaucracies through collective leadership–its ecosystem of talents, expertise, and perspectives and the inclusivity of this diversity to shift social systems.
Malcolm North is a senior quantitative researcher with a specialization in leadership ethics and in designing, developing, and validating new leadership and organizational scales for research and practice. Malcolm has been engaged in multiple studies where new scales were developed for specific research including ethical behaviors, integrity, power use, collective agency, transparency, interpersonal ethics, and leadership style. Current instructional and research interests include cooperative just systems that leverage shared responsibility and agency to co-create value for social impact and change.
