For the Touro College and University System (TCUS), the answer came through the work of two dedicated members of the Touro Graduate School of Education (GSE)— Laurie Bobley, Ed.D. and Alan Sebel, Ed.D.—and their project, the Touro College Academy of Leadership and Management (TCALM). The program, now concluding its third year, assembles a twelve-member cohort each year from across Touro’s New York-based undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools.

Participants in the program meet for nine monthly sessions and attend leadership seminars led by Touro College’s senior management and outside lecturers. Mirroring an MBA program, each session focuses on a single case study from relevant business and academic journals tied to the theme of the session--topics include the challenges of academic leadership, conflict management, motivating staff members, finance and budgeting, and effective leadership techniques.  As part of the program, each cohort is divided into three interdisciplinary teams for the duration of the year, each team with members from different schools and disciplines, and tasked with identifying a need inside the institution and then developing a solution.

At the culmination of the program, the groups present their idea, along with a budget and expected outcomes, to Touro College President Alan Kadish who decides whether to greenlight the project. (Nearly every project has been funded.) Projects developed by the initial three cohorts have included an interdisciplinary symposium on healthy aging, single school-wide center for teacher development, a mentorship program for one of our undergraduate schools, and an online interprofessional education program for students from various Touro health schools to learn and work together on interdisciplinary teams.

Dr. Bobley said the idea for the program occurred to her during her work as the coordinator of online education for GSE. “I felt that a lot of faculty and staff had great ideas, but didn’t have a means of bringing these ideas to the attention of the university’s leadership,” said Dr. Bobley who is GSE’s Program Chair of Teaching Students with Disabilities, Grades 7-12. “We wanted to develop a forum where staff members could make their ideas heard. We also wanted to provide an opportunity for faculty members who had the desire and potential to move up into higher level positions to develop the necessary leadership skills.”

“We have so many good faculty members who simply don’t have the necessary background for leadership roles,” added Dr. Sebel.

After coming up with the idea, Dr. Bobley reached out to Dr. Sebel and the two elaborated on the idea with added help from the chair of the undergraduate business and accounting department, Dr. Sabra Brock, and retired Associate Dean of Faculties, Dr. Donne Kampel. They brought the idea to Touro’s senior leadership who provided their input and expertise before the program’s launch in 2018.

Sessions in the program range from a lecture on ethical leadership from Rabbi Moshe Krupka, TCUS Executive Vice President and Touro College Ombudsmen; the scope and reach of the Touro system by Touro College Provost Patricia Salkin; a panel with several Touro deans about the challenge of leading schools; and a session devoted to academic freedom given by Thane Rosenbaum, Distinguished University Professor at Touro College. Outside speakers have included NYU President Emeritus John Sexton, former Brooklyn Law School President Nicholas Allard, and former George Washington University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg.

Graduates of the program have credited it with both enlarging their understanding of the university along with developing their own capabilities.

“We learned leadership skills,” explained cohort member Dr. Joyce Brown of TouroCOM Middletown. “It was didactive leadership training with the opportunity to learn about Touro as an institution.”

“Touro is an amazing place to work and we were able to learn a lot about what the school’s mission is,” said cohort member Dr. Aaron Yancoskie of Touro College of Dental Medicine. “The system is so vast and broad and the benefits it brings to society are quite impressive. We are serving the global community. Part of our mission is providing opportunities for people who are on the fringes of society and we’re number one at it.”

In addition to the benefits participants gain from the seminars themselves, Dr. Bobley said that having different faculty members inside Touro meet each other was a net positive. “Collaboration leads to innovation,” said Dr. Bobley. “When our cohort collaborates with colleagues in other schools and disciplines in the college, they come up with new ideas that are more inclusive of a wider scope of the system.”

“We’ve broken down barriers,” said Dr. Sebel. “TCALM has allowed our faculty to form relationships across schools and feel more confident in proposing new ideas that will help move the Touro College & University System forward.”

Drs. Bobley and Sebel said that the program was able to continue remotely during the coronavirus. The newest cohort will begin on schedule at the end of January.