Scott Harper and Girish Ganjyal recently completed the LEAD21 leadership-development program. The LEAD21 program trains representatives from land-grant institutions around the country, with the goal of developing leaders who link research, academics, and extension.
Harper and Ganjyal worked on the program with 90 peers, both in-person and virtually, from other land grants.
Harper, the director of the Clean Plant Center Northwest, said he learned that faculty across the U.S. are wrestling with similar issues. The course showed him he isn’t alone and gave him methods for working through those issues.
“I’m in a demanding leadership role at present, and I hadn’t taken leadership training before,” Harper said. “Faculty roles are evolving, with increased leadership roles outside of their traditional spheres. LEAD21 helped me grow.
The program helped Ganjyal, the Interim Director and an Associate Professor in the School of Food Science and an Extension Food Processing Specialist, move toward his goal of taking on more leadership roles at WSU.
“It is important to learn ways of leading a diverse team in advancing complex systems,” Ganjyal said. “This course showed me that it is up to leaders to bring out the exceptional abilities everyone has to impact society in positive ways.”
Harper and Ganjyal were nominated to take part in the program.