The Experience

Most sessions will be held in the Amphitheatre (Room 106) of the Paul W. Martin Sr. Honors Building. The Honors Building also offers lounge and study areas, a library, data ports and Wi-Fi, student-accessible computers and printers, drink and snack machines, and a student kitchenette.

The Institute is a one-week, three credit hour course, held each year during the first week of S3A Summer Term. The daily schedule is flexible but will generally follow the outline below.

Monday – Friday
9:00 – 10:25 :: Activities/Discussion
10:25 – 10:40 :: Break
10:40 – 12:00 :: Activities/Discussion
12:00 – 1:30 :: Special Guest Speaker & Lunch
1:30 – 2:30 :: Activities/Discussion
2:30 – 2:45 :: Break
2:45 – 4:00 :: Activities/Discussion
4:00 – 4:15 :: Break
4:15 – 6:00 :: Activities/Project Work

As you can see, you will participate in a highly intensive and remarkably unique experience involving a carefully designed sequence of lectures, discussions, activities, and reflective exercises focused on developing your understanding of and ability to apply critical leadership principles and skills.

Lunchtime Leadership Lectures

The Lunchtime Speaker Sessions scheduled as part of the Institute (and included with the FREE lunch) will provide students with the opportunity to hear from and interact with a number of highly accomplished leaders.

Consistent with the Institute’s multidisciplinary approach, lunchtime speakers are carefully chosen to represent a wide variety of professions including arts, sciences, sports, politics, volunteer organizations, businesses, and community-based organizations.

Our speakers are very successful in their chosen fields and are eager  to share their thoughts about what it means to exercise leadership. Interacting with them will help you see how to apply what you’re learning in the classroom to challenges you will face as you begin your own career after college.

Faculty

The Institute is conducted jointly by Dr. Leigh Clark and Dr. David Foote , with assistance from other MTSU faculty members for certain topics and activities.

Institute Director

Dr. Leigh Anne Clark is a Professor of Management in the Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University. She combines her Psychology, Law, and Management education in her work with Organizations, focusing on the people side of management. She teaches courses in Organization Behavior, Leadership, and Business Ethics. Her research focuses on the ethics of technology, privacy, leadership and organizational behavior, and business ethics generally. She has published in such journals as the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Managerial Issues, and Technology and Society. 

She obtained her law degree from Emory University in 1992 and worked for private law firms, the Georgia Attorney General’s Office, Atlanta Legal Aid Society, AARP, and the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities. She served as a consultant with government and nonprofit organizations in Georgia before forming and serving as the executive director of a legal nonprofit (Disability Law and Policy Center of Georgia) before obtaining her Doctor of Business Administration with a focus in Organization Studies from Southern Illinois University in 2007.  She has created and delivered many trainings sessions on leadership and management topics and most recently worked with Dr. Raffo to create a course to share The Leadership Challenge® with MTSU students.  

Faculty Coordinator

A retired naval officer, Dr. David Foote earned his MBA and PhD in Organizational Behavior from the University of Kentucky, where his dissertation research focused on the implementation of a team structure in a highly unionized organization. Dr. Foote is a tenured professor of organizational behavior in the Management Department of Jennings A. Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University. His research interests include equity sensitivity, leadership, and moral disengagement, and his work is published in Journal of Managerial Issues, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Human Resource Management Review, Contingent Staffing, Marketing Education Review, Advances in Consumer Research, and Management Decision. He has served as a consultant in management, team skills, and leadership development, three terms as Chair of the University Honors Council, and is currently President of the Executive Board for MTSU’s chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. He is also a former Civil War re-enactor who portrayed the real-life war correspondent Junius Henri Browne of the New York Tribune. Dr. Foote and Dr. Earl Thomas created the Institute of Leadership Excellence in 2006. Dr. Foote served as the Institute’s Director from 2006-2016. Dr. Deana Raffo directed the Institute from 2017-2020, and returned the Directorship to Dr. Foote again in 2021 – 2023.