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The Woodruff Leadership Academy Relaunches for 2025

The Woodruff Leadership Academy (WLA), the premier leadership training program of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, will relaunch in September 2025.  The WLA

took a short pause with the retirement of Gary Teal in 2024 after four decades of service and leadership. We will now be relaunch the program under the leadership of

Scott Boden, Tammie Quest and Michael Sacks as  co-Directors. 

 

Started in 2003, the WLA was formed to help WHSC professionals and managers to further advance their leadership skills with the over-arching goal of developing proficient, effective future leaders for the WHSC.  Woodruff Leadership Academy 2.0 will have an enhanced format and curriculum developed through feedback

gathered from previous WLA Fellows. While course hours have not changed significantly, WLA 2.0 will now span 8 months (September – April) versus its previous

4 month length.  Sessions will include Negotiations, Influence without Authority, Conflict Management, Talent Management, Leading Organizational Change, Strategic Thinking, Authentic Leadership, Social Capital /Emotional Intelligence, Finance for the Leader, and Professional Communications. 

We have organized the WLA 2.0 experience into four categories: 

  1. Leading Yourself: Fellows will gain personal insights into their own leadership and strength through validated tools and 360-degree evaluations.  

  2. Leading Others: Fellows will learn through large group and small group interactive sessions and case study sessions focused on skill building to run complex organizations. 

  3. Learning from Leaders: the WLA will invite leaders from across the university and wider Atlanta community share their thoughts on leadership panels constructed to inform, deepen and amplify the curricular modules. 

  4. Practicing leadership/motivating change: fellows will apply leadership principles learned throughout the course to deliver a relevant high impact capstone project        that is committed to implementation. The WLA 2.0 Capstone Projects will be solicited from the broader WHSC community by an RFP Process and selected based on likelihood to be implemented when completed. The WLA Fellow team will function as external advisory consultants making recommendations for the project direction and implementation. Members of units will serve as subject matter experts and resources for projects.  

Members of the WHSC Community will be able to submit projects for consideration from April 28th to June 16, 2025 using this Qualtrics Survey Link https://gbs.qualtrics.emory.edu/jfe/form/SV_3vJeNrhHbintqiG 

Ideal WLA Capstone Project Criteria:  

- Projects that can start in September 2025

 

- Projects that can be planned in 4-6 months and have 2-3 achievable short-term implementable wins 

 

- Projects that, if they need funding, the funds are already in the budget or under the control of the operating unit. Projects cannot be contingent on securing funding

 

- Projects with a question that has no obvious solution and needs to be studied/answered

 

- Projects that seek a recommendation on a future course of action or decision  

 

Finally, we welcome the Fellows of the WLA 2.0 Class of 2025 (accepted in 2024): 

Brent Addison, Camille Brockett-Walker, Manuel Garcia-Toca, Lara Harik, Tracey Henry, Yolanda Hood, Ticiana Leal, Tene Lewis, Yang Lui, Ajay Nooka, Guarav Patel, Meghan Schaub, Deb Smith, Jay Varkey and Colin Washington.