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Lessons in Leadership
Executive Leadership Programs for Advancing Diversity in Higher Education
Edited by David León, professor of ethics studies and director of the Chicano Studies Program
 Higher education has made great strides to increase ethnic diversity among students, but the same can’t be said of the top officer on campuses around the country, according to a new book edited by David León, director of the Chicano Studies program. The book points out that nearly 90 percent of college and university presidents are white.
León says that executive leadership training programs are critical in helping minorities move up the career ladder in higher education administration.
His book is one of the first to examine the growth of leadership programs in higher education and their role in enhancing diversity. The book, which includes a foreword written by Sacramento State President Alexander Gonzalez, serves as a follow-up to León’s 2003 work, Latinos in Higher Education, which looked at how the growing Latino population will affect higher education in the future.
In the latest book León examined leadership training programs ranging from the traditional such as the American Council on Education’s Fellows Program to the newer efforts such as the Millennium Leadership Initiative of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
“These programs are probably more valuable for minorities than whites because minorities are less likely to have the connections and receive the wisdom of prior generations that can set them up for the top jobs leading our nation’s universities,” León says. “The future of higher education depends of many factors, but these leadership programs will play a vital role.”
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