story by Claire Miller | photo by Shay Richards
This summer, clinical rehabilitation counseling graduate Ellie Potts (M.S. ’21) returned to Georgia State University’s downtown Atlanta campus to attend the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) Leadership Academy.
The academy brought together current and future leaders from the disability community to Georgia State for a week-long series of workshops designed to further develop their leadership skills. Attendees will also connect throughout the academic year to build on what they learned in these initial workshops.
Potts applied for the AUCD Leadership Academy to “reconnect with the community of people who think like I do, reconnect with my identity as an individual with a disability and challenge myself to be a better leader and person.”
And for her, the experience more than delivered.
“It’s let me see myself differently, see my place as a leader differently and see my place in the world differently,” Potts said. “It’s been life changing because I’m learning how to hold space for others and use my gifts to lift up other people. It’s going to impact everything I do moving forward.”
Georgia State has hosted the leadership academy for the last nine years, according to Andy Roach, professor in the College of Education & Human Development (CEHD) and co-founder of the Inclusive Digital Education and Literacy Program, the university’s inclusive postsecondary education program for students with intellectual disabilities.
Faculty and staff from Georgia State’s Center for Leadership in Disability and the CEHD have collaborated with the AUCD to provide this professional development for leaders working in the disability space, training more than 200 leaders from across the country since the university became host.
The academy’s workshops incorporate core values and principles set forth by the Center for Courage and Renewal, a nonprofit organization that works to “create supportive communities of reflection and belonging that help people move towards personal and societal wholeness,” according to its website.
“We also focus on topics like the history of the disability rights movement, strengths-based leadership and tools for understanding and analyzing power in organizations and communities,” Roach said. “Because we are committed to including participants with disabilities, we are constantly working to improve the accessibility of our activities and materials.”
Kristen Padilla, a clinical associate professor at Baylor University and director of the Baylor Center for Developmental Disabilities, believes the AUCD Leadership Academy stands out from other workshops and conferences she’s attended.
“When I go to professional development, I tend to listen, learn, strategize and act. What’s my action plan?” she said. “This workshop provides several opportunities for personal reflection, which I believe just helps me to be a better person, which in turn makes me a better leader. I’m learning how to use my strengths to collaborate with different levels of leadership and how to communicate more effectively.”
This is exactly the kind of feedback that Mark Crenshaw, director of interdisciplinary training for Georgia State's Center for Leadership in Disability, likes to hear from academy participants.
“We heard from this year’s group that they learned to slow down and be more intentional about using their strengths and gifts to build communities where everyone has an opportunity to share their gifts and strengths,” he said. “We get to experience firsthand the power of the next generation of leaders with and without disabilities.”