Leadership Academy
Application Deadline is October 17, 2025
mli: Next gen Leadership Academy
The MLI: Next Gen experience begins with The Leadership Academy, a 10-month fellowship designed as a primer to familiarize participants with key leadership concepts of the power arena and develop a common language for civic action. A select group of fellows is annually chosen to participate in The MLI: Next Gen Leadership Academy, leading to special membership designation and recognition within the broader MLI family.
The Leadership Academy is not an academic exercise for self-improvement, nor simply an analysis of politics and the public arena. The MLI: Next Gen and The Leadership Academy are vehicles for direct action for those who seek to be successful in effectuating change as public civic leaders. The Leadership Academy provides fellows with a space to conduct an introspective assessment of their own political instincts as they come to understand the concepts and dynamics of public leadership. The fellowship consists of monthly private sessions and serves as an open venue for candid discourse absent political correctness.
Please be aware that MLI Next Gen has a competitive application process that includes an interview. It is important that you are responsive to attempts to contact you so that we can stick to the application timeline. Unresponsive applicants will be automatically declined after good faith efforts to connect.
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The MLI: Next Gen Leadership Academy engages a cohort of 25-30 individuals through an intense training program that includes candid dialogue, challenging debate, and an analysis of the public arena. Moreover, participants will learn to create public change through pragmatic and centrist positioning in the world of power.
These sessions are conducted by MLI: Next Gen leadership and/or invited guest presenters. Presenters include select community, business and labor leaders, elected officials, analysts, authors and media representatives. Participants are expected to read a series of books and articles that are relevant to the program and to the topics at hand. All sessions are off-the-record and closed to the media.
These sessions are not a “how-to-be-a-leader” training, but rather, a primer for participants to reflect and take an introspective look at one’s instincts in the public power arena.
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The Leadership Academy applies classic organizing concepts, analysis and strategies to engage and challenge participants. Through this training, participants are challenged about common perceptions of public leadership, the power arena, self-interest, relationships and the effect that each has on public policy and on communities. They are introduced to the “players” in the arena and dissect the interests that guide their particular positions, philosophies and actions. Participants come to have a firm grasp and understanding of how to affect public change and positively impact communities.
Further, they are challenged to appreciate the nuance and ambiguity of power as a civic leader. Participants are introduced to a common language that will be revisited throughout the program.
Application Deadline is October 17, 2025