Mission
Equip and elevate Sewanee colleagues to lead positive change.
Vision
A flourishing University where everyone has the ability and responsibility to lead.
Message from the CfL Director:
A New Chapter Begins
Friday, May 30, 2025
Dear colleagues,
As you may have read in the Provost's announcement today, this is my last day as Director of the Center for Leadership, which will formally close at the end of the day. After a summer away from campus—gratefully spent resting, reflecting, and becoming a first-time grandmother—I’ll return on August 1 to begin a new role as Student Formation Director in the Career Readiness + Student Success department.
This transition is part of Sewanee’s strategic plan, which calls us to support students more intentionally and cohesively across their time here. The Center for Leadership was always meant to evolve—first focusing on faculty and staff leadership development, then shifting toward student leadership formation. As that shift came into view, it became clear that serving both audiences well would require more structure and capacity than one office could provide. I proposed a transition, and I’m grateful it was met with strong and enthusiastic support (thank you, Scott Wilson and Kim Heitzenrater!).
Some elements of the Center’s work will continue, thanks to our colleagues in Human Resources, who have committed to carrying forward several CfL initiatives supporting faculty and staff development. Other efforts will conclude, having fulfilled their purpose.
In this next chapter, this new role focuses on connecting and amplifying the many ways students grow at Sewanee—both inside and outside the classroom. Student formation is about helping students grow into their fullest and truest selves: discovering their gifts, shaping their purpose, and finding their place in the world. It happens in labs, classrooms, McClurg, study abroad, residence halls, rehearsal spaces, internships, community engagement, and everywhere in between. My role will support this formation by aligning programs, removing barriers, and shining a light on what we already do so well, while helping coordinate efforts so we can collectively achieve our goals for 2A and 2B of the “Heart” section of our strategic plan.
Importantly, we—faculty and staff colleagues—are key to student formation. Research shows that one of the strongest predictors of student success and retention is having a meaningful relationship with at least one faculty or staff member. That’s why my focus will shift from building bridges between colleagues and departments to strengthening the bridges between colleagues and students.
This work will continue to depend on your help—not by adding more to anyone’s plate, but by supporting and coordinating what so many of us already do so well: showing up with warmth, competence, and care. And when the opportunity arises, by being willing to be The One for a student—someone who sees them, listens to them, and believes in them. It could make all the difference.
I want to express deep gratitude to all the people who helped shape the CfL over the years: colleagues who were part of the founding and launching of the CfL; the amazing 83 (!) Leadership Lab graduates; the colleagues, parents, alumni, and external partners who shared their expertise and gifts through workshops, projects, and ideas; the CfL Council members; the departments who hosted CliftonStrengths workshops to knit their teams together; the close collaborations with Human Resources, the Center for Teaching, and the Staff Partnership Council; and to everyone who took part in any CfL offering over the past six years.
Whether or not you participated in Center for Leadership programs, thank you for the many ways you’ve contributed to the culture of growth and connection that runs so deeply through our campus. I’m honored to work alongside such remarkable colleagues—people who change lives—and I’m hopeful and joyful about what’s ahead!
If you’d like to mark the close of this chapter, please feel free to add a post to this virtual bulletin board as a simple way to share and remember. You’re warmly invited to share a CfL memory, message, lesson, or hope, if you wish.
With much gratitude,
Elizabeth LeVieux Wilson
Personal Growth Tools: Online Assessments
Click here for a list of online assessments to learn more about yourself and your abilities (including CliftonStrengths, Conflict Styles, Personal Values Inventory, Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, Interest Profiler, etc.)
Sewanee Colleagues Facebook Group
One of the best parts of working at Sewanee is getting to work alongside devoted and gifted colleagues. The Center for Leadership is providing venues for improved internal communication to promote unity, collaboration, and trust among colleagues. Click here to request to join (current and officially retired colleagues only, please).
Praising Up Colleagues
Give Public Recognition ("PR") to a Sewanee colleague who works either behind the scenes or in the spotlight by filling out this PRaising Up Colleagues form. Let's shine the spotlight on the many people who make a difference at Sewanee!
Request a Workshop
To request a workshop for your team, department or class, please submit one of these forms:
Idea Incubator: "Your idea. Our support."
The Center for Leadership has designed a new process to support and elevate new and innovative ideas that will create positive change at Sewanee. If you are a faculty or staff colleague with an idea, click here to learn more and to start the ball rolling!
Questions? Contact Elizabeth Wilson at the Center for Leadership at elwilson@sewanee.edu.
