DUSON Staff Complete Emerging Leaders Program

This summer 10 staff members, Raymond Brisson, Wendy Conklin, Keysha Hall, Nora Harrington, Chloe Hayim, Jennifer Higgins, Libby Joyce, Najla McClain, Carla Nichols, and Belinda Wisdom, graduated from the DUSON Emerging Leaders Program.

The program was a collaboration between DUSON Human Resources and the Duke University Learning and Organizational Development Office. The 12-month program is modeled after the highly successful Duke Leadership Academy. The Leadership Academy focuses on leadership and management styles and behaviors for implementing strategy. While the Emerging Leaders Program covers some leadership topics, it also provides substantial guidance on management. During the program, participants learned about dimensions of management for successful leaders, best practices for managing employee expectations, project management, effective relationships that bring out the best in people, finance and budgeting, managing from the middle, diagnosing your level of skill when working with those in higher level positions and so much more.

Participants were split into two Action Learning Case Study Teams that worked to address two specific School of Nursing challenges: "Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) Preceptor Engagement and Recognition Program" and "DUSON Graduate Tracking Process, Data Repository and Reporting." The first project was an opportunity for the team to develop a comprehensive plan that not only engages preceptors and offers them professional benefits but also helps them feel valued and important to students’ education. The second project was an opportunity for the team to create an effective plan for tracking information about graduates, such as employment or contact information, that will be accessible to various departments within the School.

As part of the program, participants met with Duke University leaders who shared with them their journeys in leadership.