Pitt’s Hesselbein Global Academy for Student Leadership and Civic Engagement Holds 2nd Annual Summit, July 10-13, Attracts Students, Business and Government Leaders, Worldwide

PITTSBURGH—What does it take to be an engaged, informed, innovative leader? College students from around the world will get more than a glimpse of the requirements at the second annual Student Leadership Summit of the University of Pittsburgh Hesselbein Global Academy for Student Leadership and Civic Engagement, to be held July 10-13 on the University’s Pittsburgh campus.

The by-invitation-only summit—comprising a series of daily workshops—will open at 4 p.m. July 10 and will conclude at noon July 13 in the William Pitt Union, 3959 Fifth Ave., Oakland. A highlight of the summit is the Hesselbein Lecture at 5 p.m. July 12 in the University Club’s Ballroom B, University Place, featuring Marshall Goldsmith, world-renowned leadership expert and the author of the New York Times best seller What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (Hyperion, 2007).

Launched in 2009, the Hesselbein Global Academy is named in honor of Pitt alumnus Frances Hesselbein, recipient of the 1998 Presidential Medal of Freedom and chair of the board of governors of the Leader to Leader Institute (formerly the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management). The academy’s mission is to inspire, develop, and reward accomplished student leaders as they meet the challenges of tomorrow.

“We are absolutely thrilled to be hosting the second annual Hesselbein Summit,” said Pitt Vice Provost and Dean of students Kathy W. Humphrey. “We anticipate that this year’s summit will be fantastic, with greater representation from students attending colleges and universities in other countries and another incredible pool of mentors. Our special guest Marshall Goldsmith is truly one of the top experts in the world in the field of leadership, along with Frances, so it’s exciting to conduct this wonderful event on our campus once again.”

Fifty college students—traveling to Pitt from throughout the United States, Argentina, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Georgia, India, Ireland, Kosovo, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and The Netherlands—will participate in this year’s Hesselbein summit. Five of the 50 students chosen to participate are Pitt students: Peter Adams, a junior neuroscience/premed major from Newton Square, Pa.; Lesley Adewunmi, a senior political science and philosophy major with a minor in Africana Studies from Ballston Lake, N.Y.; Jamil Alhassan, a junior biology major from Philadelphia, Pa.; Elaine Lewis, a junior history and political science major from Pittsburgh, Pa.; and Patrick Moon-Rhodes, a sophomore mechanical engineering technology major from Johnstown, Pa. Moon-Rhodes attends Pitt’s Johnstown campus, Hesselbein’s alma mater.

Learning from accomplished business and government professionals, students will develop and polish their leadership skills in a series of workshops and civic engagement experiences.

The workshops, held throughout the summit, include presentations titled “Considerations of Multicultural Leadership,” “Creating the Culture of the Organization,” “Peter Drucker’s Five Most Important Questions,” “Philanthropy and Civic Engagement,” and “Considerations of Multicultural Leadership from a Global Context.”

Under the direction of their mentors, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. July 12, students will apply what they learn to solve a specific organizational problem at such participating organizations as Sustainable Pittsburgh, Leadership Pittsburgh, Ladies Hospital Aid Society, Collegiate YMCA, the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, PNC Bank, Conservation Consultants, Inc., and United Cerebral Palsy Pittsburgh.

This year’s professional mentors are: Bernard B. Banks, Colonel, deputy department head of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.; Eva Tansky Blum (A&S ’70, LAW ’73), a Pitt Trustee, senior vice president and director of community affairs at PNC Bank, and chair of the PNC Foundation in Pittsburgh, Pa.; Cathey Brown, founder and chief executive officer of Rainbow Days, Inc., in Dallas, Texas; Tara A. Cortes, executive director of Hartford Institute for Geriatrics and professor in geriatric nursing at the New York University College of Nursing in New York, N.Y.; Randal D. Fullhart, Major General, director of Global Reach Programs for the U.S. Air Force in Arlington, Va.; Carla Grantham, retired Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Coast Guard and Congressional liaison for diversity recruiting and talent management in Washington, D.C.; Toshiko Inoue, financial advisor at AXA Equitable in New York, N.Y.; Charles J. O’Connor III, retired Colonel in the U.S. Air Force and former senior vice president of Fidelity Investments in Worcester, Mass.; Keith Schaefer (A&S ’71), a Pitt trustee and president and chief executive officer of BPL Global, Ltd., in Cranberry Township, Pa.; and Tamara Woodbury, chief executive officer of the Girl Scouts—Arizona Cactus-Pine Council in Phoenix.

Goldsmith, the keynote speaker, was recognized as one of the 15 most influential business thinkers in the world in the biannual study conducted by The (London) Times and Forbes magazine. The American Management Association named Goldsmith one of the 50 great thinkers and leaders who have influenced the field of management over the past 80 years. Scheduled to be translated into 14 languages, his latest book, Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Hyperion, 2010), is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal top 10 best seller and has been named by Shanghai Daily as the No. 1 business book in China.

Goldsmith earned his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. A fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources, Goldsmith teaches executive education at the Dartmouth University’s Tuck School of Business.

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