Executive Education Students Host Disability Baseball Camp

Middle Tennessee children with special needs will swing for the fences on Saturday at Greer Stadium when Dave Clark, the only professional baseball player to have pitched and played from crutches, hosts Disability Dream Day Baseball Camp in partnership with the Nashville Sounds. Belmont University Center for Executive Education students worked closely with the Dave Clark Foundation and the Sounds to launch the camp in Nashville.

“We are thrilled to work with Belmont University to bring the Disability Dream Day to Nashville for the first time,” said Clark, who contracted polio at 10-months-old yet went one to become a Major League Baseball pitcher and first baseman.  “The Nashville Sounds have stepped up to the plate to welcome Middle Tennessee’s disability community to Greer Stadium. Without a doubt, this will be an inspiring day for everyone involved.”

As part of the Belmont Executive Leadership program, executives enrolled in CEE are organizing, managing and facilitating the disability camp in partnership with the Dave Clark Foundation and the Sounds.  Among them are Belmont’s Director of University Marketing and Special Initiatives Annie Mitchell, Assistant Provost of Assessment & Institutional Research Tracy Rokas and Director of Undergradate Studies in Nursing Martha Buckner.

“The leaders who participate in our program are already making a difference in Middle Tennessee, but we saw this as an opportunity where they can further develop their leadership skills while impacting an important segment of our community,” said CEE Executive Director Gene Mage.  “We’re honored to play a role in bringing the disability camp and Dave Clark’s inspiring story to Nashville.”

In conjunction with the baseball camp, middle school students Jared Stevens and Justin Kievit will receive the Dave Clark: Pulling Each Other Along Award. The award honors the notable contributions of people who have helped individuals achieve their dreams under exceptional circumstances. Stevens, who has cerebral palsy, wrested Justin Kievit last fall and a video of their wrestling match received national recognition.

Click here to read about the event on the Sounds’ blog. Click here to view more photos.

Wiseman Urges Executives to Multiply Company Talent

Author and leadership development professional Liz Wiseman challenged Nashville-area business executives to maximize the existing resources at their firms by being leaders who multiply the capabilities of their employees.

“Imagine what is possible with all the intelligence that sits in your organization. The role of the leader is shifting from knowing, telling and directing to one where the leader observes, harnesses and unleashes the capabilities of others,” Wiseman said.

The Center for Executive Education at Belmont University hosted Liz Wiseman as the keynote speaker during its Spring Leadership Breakfast on May 1 in the Curb Event Center arena. Presented in partnership with the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, the event explored how executives can become leaders who inspire employees to stretch themselves to deliver results that surpass expectations.

Her talk over breakfast focused on her leadership books Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter and The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools, which promote “the multiplier effect” or the influence leaders have on the intelligence of people around them.

“Some leaders tend to grow intelligence and others tend to suck it right out of organizations like wet blankets,” Wiseman said. “As a multiplier, you use your intelligence to amplify and grow the people around you. The people get smarter and more capable when they work with you.” (more…)

Center for Executive Education Hosts Best-Selling Author Liz Wiseman

The Center for Executive Education at Belmont University will host Liz Wiseman as the keynote speaker during its Spring Leadership Breakfast on Wednesday, May 1 in the Curb Event Center arena. Presented in partnership with the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, the event will explore how executives can become leaders who inspire employees to stretch themselves to deliver results that surpass expectations.

Liz Wiseman is president of the Wiseman Group, a leadership research and development firm headquartered in the Silicon Valley, and some of her recent clients include Apple, Dubai Bank, Genentech, Nike, PayPal, Salesforce.com and Twitter. She is the author of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, a Wall Street Journal bestseller, and The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools. She has conducted significant research in the field of leadership and collective intelligence and writes for Harvard Business Review and a variety of other business and leadership journals.

Ralph Schulz, president and chief executive officer of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, said, “The Chamber is excited to continue our partnership with Belmont’s Center for Executive Education to present the Spring Leadership Breakfast. The semi-annual Leadership Breakfast events have created an opportunity for us to bring national level speakers and authors here to Nashville. It is partnerships like this that allows us to create more value for our members.”

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100 Black Women, Belmont Partner to Launch Leadership Program

Program will serve as a national model for organization

The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. (NCBW), Metropolitan Nashville Chapter has announced the establishment of a leadership development certification program in collaboration with Belmont University designed to train and prepare African-American women for leadership service on nonprofit, government and corporate boards.

The new initiative, which will operate through Belmont University’s College of Business Administration, strives to develop and market competent, qualified and committed professional business women of color to help them gain access and share their skill sets to help organizations reach their full potential. In addition to the 100 Black Women and Belmont, several other supporting organizations have signed on to the effort, including the Nashville Coalition of 100 Black Women Foundation, Inc., Meharry Medical College, HCA and members of the national leadership arm of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Incorporated.

“This effort has been several years in the making and we are very excited about the development of a program like this which has so much value in shaping the diversity and perspective of board leadership,” said Veronica Marable-Johnson, president of NCBW Nashville. “We seek to create a resource for organizations seeking well-trained and knowledgeable black women who are ready to contribute to the overall management, growth and success of organizations.”

The certification program will have three tiers focusing on nonprofit leadership, government and corporate leadership and provide an introduction to the basics of board service, governance, strategic planning and overall responsibilities. The first module of the program will be launched in fall 2013. (more…)

Belmont Trains Financial Counselors for United Way through Bloomberg Philanthropies Grant

Belmont University will play a foundational role in new Financial Empowerment Centers to help low-income Nashvillians reduce debt and build assets through free, individual counseling. The Office of Mayor Karl Dean and United Way of Metropolitan Nashville have received a $2 million grant funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies and Living Cities’ Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund. The University will train six United Way financial counselors to staff the centers.

Belmont Associate Professor and Nashville Poverty Council Chair Kristine LaLonde is coordinating the educational partnership and has worked with College of Business Administration Dean J. Patrick Raines, Finance Professor Greg Faulk and Adjunct Instructor Paul McCullough to implement the program.

“Belmont University was honored to be invited by the mayor’s office and United Way to be the educational partner in this important initiative serving some of Nashville’s most vulnerable families,” said Gene Mage, executive director of the Center for Executive Education at Belmont University.  “In our contribution to the grant application, we were able to draw on our College of Business Administration’s personal finance curriculum, our long history equipping certified financial planners and the University’s deep commitment to serve the local community.”

The Center for Executive Education wrote the educational piece of the grant application and identified the instructor and now is working to create the curriculum design, oversee participant registration and course logistics. The center also will evaluate results and provide quality control for the course as it runs to encourage continuous improvement of the program.

The three-year grant will serve an estimated 5,000 Nashvillians at Financial Empowerment Centers run by United Way of Metropolitan Nashville. Financial counselors will teach clients how to open safe and affordable checking accounts, establish a credit score, maintain a positive balance, decrease debt and maintain savings. The centers also have a strong focus on integrating with other services driving toward self-sufficiency, including benefits enrollment, family stabilization services, workforce training and job placement and housing.

“These Financial Empowerment Centers will play a vital role in helping Nashville families move from poverty to financial stability,” said Nashville Mayor Karl Dean. “Making sure individuals and families get personalized financial literacy services will help us build stronger families and a stronger community.” (more…)