NYU Wagner

Next Generation Leadership Alumni Network

Background and Purpose

The Next Generation Leaderhip Alumni Network is a community of 118 leaders, all of whom received a Next Generation Leadership (NGL) award from the Rockefeller Foundation between 1997 and 2002. The Research Center for Leadership in Action (RCLA) is collaborating with the NGL alumni to create a viable network of practitioners that will boost their professional effectiveness through a series of on-going activities. The series of activities undertaken by the Alumni will promote new understanding about the dynamics both of leadership and social networks.

The Rockefeller Foundation created the original NGL program in 1997 out of a commitment to building a stronger, more sustainable democracy for the United States in the 21st Century. In all, five "cohorts" of leaders were selected. Since 2004, the NGL program has been housed at the Research Center for Leadership in Action.

The broad goals of this program are:

• To encourage further leadership capacity through reflective practice and the articulation of new knowledge about leadership, generated through systematic opportunities to address urgent questions of practice.
• To provide opportunities for the NGL Fellows to regenerate and acquire additional knowledge, resources, relationships, skills, partners and allies to strengthen their work
• To promote and encourage a broad participation of the diverse voices of the NGL network
• To promote democracy and social justice through action and reflection