UTIA’s Chris Boyer Selected for National Leadership Program
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Chris Boyer, professor and assistant head of the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, has been selected to participate in the 20th class of LEAD21, a one-year program designed to develop leaders in land-grant institutions and their strategic partners who link research, academics and Extension.
“Chris has been demonstrating excellent leadership abilities and potential,” said Hongwei Xin, dean of UT AgResearch. “The highly sought-after LEAD21 Program will enhance his skill set, which will yield dividends for the mission-driven programs and the constituents he strives to serve with distinction.”
The program provides immersive professional development for academic leaders from the land-grant system. With participation spanning the country, the program’s purpose is to prepare participants to lead more effectively in an increasingly complex environment, either in their current position or as they take on new positions.
“I am sincerely grateful for this opportunity,” said Boyer. “I am looking forward to learning and growing professionally.”
Participants will learn strategies for influencing institutional transformation and benefit from leadership competencies such as communicating effectively, managing conflict, leading change, fostering collaboration, and more. LEAD21 aims to help participants develop a peer leadership network and cultivate and implement an individual leadership development process.
The program is targeted at faculty, specialists, program and team leaders, research station and center directors, district and regional directors, department heads and chairs, and others in land-grant universities’ colleges of agricultural, environmental, and human sciences and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
More information about the LEAD21 program can be found at lead-21.org.
The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture is comprised of the Herbert College of Agriculture, UT College of Veterinary Medicine, UT AgResearch and UT Extension. Through its land-grant mission of teaching, research and outreach, the Institute touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. to Tennesseans and beyond. utia.tennessee.edu.