April 27, 2017

Following the contentious and often bitter 2016 election, there is perhaps no individual better suited to discuss our country’s crisis in leadership, or to charge our graduating Cook Leadership Academy Fellows with the responsibility of authentic leadership than Dr. Barbara Kellerman, the James MacGregor Burns Lecturer in Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). Dr. Kellerman has been an instrumental figure in the study of leadership for decades and is now the Founding Executive Director of the HKS Center for Public Leadership. She has held professorships at no less than six universities, among them Tufts, George Washington, and Dartmouth. She was also the co-founder of the International Leadership Association (ILA). Dr. Kellerman is the author and editor of many books, including The Political Presidency: Practice of Leadership; Bad Leadership; The End of Leadership ; and Hard Times: Leadership in America. Often recognized for her insights, she has appeared on multiple media outlets including CBS, NPR and the BBC, and has contributed articles to some of our nation’s most prominent newspapers including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe.