Wabash Valley Leadership Institute
Wabash Valley Leadership Institute is now Leadership Academy
The Leadership Academy aims to serve emerging leaders across West Central Indiana by offering a robust curriculum focused on leadership (personal, corporate and community-focused), communication, productive conflict, effective teamwork and critical and strategic thinking.
The origin of The Leadership Academy is the Wabash Valley Leadership Institute, which began in 2014. The founders of that program were Rachel Leslie and Susan Turner as part of their thesis to earn their Master of Leadership Development degrees at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. The College and Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce collaborated to implement the program and, since 2014, have had 13 cohorts and 166 graduates. It was designed as an intensive week-long program on the campus of SMWC. Since COVID, there was a realization by SMWC and the Chamber that a new model needed to be devised to fit the needs of participants and businesses.