Chris Leupold presents at national leadership conference

The research examined the impact of leadership programming and experiential learning activities on students' reslience and leadership efficacy.

Chris Leupold, Isabella Cannon Professor of Leadership and associate professor of psychology, presented at the Association of Leadership Education’s (ALE) annual conference in Chicago, Illinois, on July 10. The title of the presentation was, “An examination of leadership development and other experiential activities on student resilience and leadership efficacy” and was co-authored by 2017 Elon graduate and Honors Fellow, Evan Skloot ’17. 

The presentation discussed the researchers’ analyses of data from the Multi-Institutional Survey of Leadership, specifically the impact of curricular and co-curricular experiential programs on students’ leadership efficacy (i.e., extent to which they can envision themselves assuming a leadership role) and resilience (i.e., their ability to recover from setbacks). Results indicated that leadership programming, as well as other experiential activities such as study abroad and internships, were better predictors of leadership efficacy than resilience. Implications and applications of the findings were discussed. The study will appear in the conference proceedings. 

At the conference, Leupold was officially installed as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for ALE’s journal, the Journal of Leadership Education. He will serve a five-year term in this role.

Leupold also serves as the Executive Leadership Coach in Residence at Elon’s School of Law. Skloot is currently a graduate student in higher education at the University of Georgia.