FAS Grantee Accepting Application for Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows

Food and Society Grantee, Sustainability Institute, now accepting applications for the 2005-2006 class of Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows.
 
The Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program was launched in 2002 to honor and build on the life example of Dr. Donella Meadows (www.sustainer.org/meadows) by empowering a new generation of sustainability leaders to incorporate systems thinking, reflection, and vision in their work and life. The Fellows Program seeks to increase the effectiveness of people whose approach to sustainability displays analytic clarity, systemic change, and attention to spirit, values, and meaning.
 
The Fellowship integrates rigorous analysis with skill in articulating feelings, values, and vision because we believe that people with this combination of talents, like Donella, are deeply needed in the world. At least two-thirds of the class will be women in order to encourage women to become leaders in the field of sustainability.

The Fellows Program trains sixteen to twenty influential mid-career environmental and social leaders in two-year programs of four workshops and personal coaching. Fellows learn to analyze an issue’s drivers and then identify leverage points and actions that would improve system performance. Fellows complement the rigorous analytical work with skills such as visioning, inquiry, and personal reflection that are critical for leading change in systems with diverse goals and stakeholders. Coaching throughout the two years focuses on Fellows’ application of the newly-acquired tools in their workplace. Skill development includes systems thinking, reflective conversation, personal mastery, and leadership for sustainability.
 
Selected Fellows will be drawn from the NGO, government, philanthropy, business, tribal, and policy sectors. Criteria for selecting Fellows include a desire to learn and apply systems thinking, the ability to apply learning organization methodology to one’s work and home institutions, a commitment to personal reflection and growth, demonstrated leadership ability, and the potential to influence thinking in wide circles of people.
 
Logistics: Four 4-day workshops will be held at the Cobb Hill Cohousing community (www.cobbhill.org) that Donella co-founded in Hartland, Vermont.
1st workshop: May 15-19, 2005
2nd workshop: October 16-20, 2005
2006 workshops dates will be decided in 2005.
Attendance at all four workshops, participation in periodic coaching telephone conferences, and completion of exercises between workshops is mandatory.
 
Cost: Travel expenses, plus $400 per 4-day workshop to cover meals, lodging, venue and materials. Scholarships are available. Sustainability Institute provides all workshop coordination, design, curriculum and delivery. Financial support for the 2005-2006 class of Fellows so far is from the Morgan Family Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, SEED Systems, and many individuals.
 
Applicants should be active practitioners in their field; applicants who are primarily students, teachers or researchers will not be accepted. This is not a train the trainer program; it is designed to give hands-on sustainability leaders tools to be more effective.
 
Application deadline is December 15, 2004. The application form is below.
See reports of previous workshops at: www.sustainer.org/fellows/reports.html
For details on how the first class of Fellows are applying what they have learned see: www.sustainer.org/fellows/currentwork.html