Anchor Institutions Task Force (AITF)

The Anchor Institutions Task Force is launching the Anchor Fellows Program.  The Program adds a dimension to existing training of future higher education and other anchor leaders by preparing a next generation of leaders committed to AITF’s values and the competencies to successfully navigate the engagement of anchors in their local communities.  This training also highlights the leadership required to build and maintain the infrastructure and commitment to sustain a comprehensive commitment to local engagement. 

Background

AITF is an action-oriented learning community that promotes the role of anchor institutions in community and economic development.  AITF’s values include a commitment to place, democracy and democratic practice, social justice and equity, and collaboration.  AITF emphasizes the full range of types of institutions that are stable assets in communities. 

Communities are complex ecosystems of varying types of organizations across sectors and fields.  An engaged anchor institution seeks to bring value to this full ecosystem and engage in democratic, mutually-transformative collaboration with organizations large and small in higher education, the nonprofit sector, philanthropy, government, business, health care, the arts, and beyond.  These organizations are interdependent in their geographic settings, and collectively, it is in their interest to help solve universal problems confronting their communities, such as health, education, economic inequality, and beyond.  AITF remains aware of demographic realities and related inequities, and encourages anchor institutions to build the capacity to pursue racial equity as well as address various manifestations of inequality by gender and other forms.

The role of stable assets in the future of communities is relevant in urban and rural contexts, as well as globally.  As local economies shift, and demographics change, the nature of institutions evolve as well.  While manufacturing firms might have been the anchors of earlier generations, the most stable nongovernmental local employers in many settings are now nonprofit organizations, such as universities and hospitals. 

The kind of leadership required to advance an anchor institution’s local purpose is unique.  It is beyond what would be considered traditional leadership characteristics or responsibilities.  These leadership qualities have contributed to the deeper engagement of some anchor institutions in their communities, greater centrality of local engagement into the core mission and strategies of some institutions, the development of local multi-institutional partnerships, the continued expansion of an anchor institutions movement, the growth of institutions in various fields recognizing their identity as anchor institutions, and the globalization of discussions about the local mission of higher education. 

As a number of leaders who have notably advanced anchor institution strategies at colleges and universities and other anchors are retiring, it is important to consider the significance of leadership in the next phase of the anchor movement.  While some anchor institutions have institutionalized AITF’s values and others have been able to maintain a commitment to this work across successive presidencies, it is important to build a pool of prospects poised to bring these values and capabilities to anchor institutions.  While we have seen some increased attention to these characteristics in existing leadership training programs, there is a need for much greater attention to what it takes to lead an engaged anchor institution.  Consequently, AITF has created the Anchor Fellows Program.

About the Program

Each year, AITF, with close consultation from AITF’s Higher Education Presidential Subgroup, will select a cohort of five future anchor leaders, who in most cases have recently completed another established higher education leadership training program.  While cohorts in the program’s early years will likely represent higher education, the program will always remain open to anchor leaders from health institutions, arts and cultural institutions, libraries, and other relevant fields.  The Anchor Fellows Program would provide these cohorts an immersion into the particular considerations involved in leading an engaged anchor institution.  Fellows will be announced in advance of AITF’s Annual Conference, and presented at the Conference.  The inaugural cohort will be presented at AITF’s Tenth Anniversary Conference on October 24 and 25, 2019 in New York City.

Each cohort’s experience will include:

• Access to members of AITF’s Higher Education Presidential Subgroup, comprised of distinguished leaders who have successfully built an anchor mission into their institutions, for mentorship, guidance and support;

• Campus and community visits with members of AITF’s Higher Education Presidential Subgroup;

• Participation in AITF’s Annual Conference (waived registration fee);

• Structured dialogue with members of AITF’s Higher Education Presidential Subgroup (on various relevant topics, including. how to be collaborative locally, how to make the case internally, how to raise money specifically for local partnerships, etc.).

Qualifications for the Program:

• Completion of an existing established leadership training program (e.g. ACE Fellows);

• A strong commitment to AITF’s values;

• A willingness to promote these values as essential to higher education leadership;

• Availability to travel and participate in relevant meetings and training sessions.