Pathways to Leadership: Stories about Relationships and Opportunities

Abstract Information: Storytelling is an opportunity to share lessons learned and build or strengthen relationships. The panelists include past AEA presidents and current AEA board members who came together with the goal of using their experiences to inspire potential and nascent leaders of the association. Framed by the panelists’ own leadership experiences, each will present stories of selected memories and events that have importantly shaped their own leadership commitments and initiatives. While the panelists have shared stories and experiences, each has also forged their own road. The panel will be structured as a facilitated conversation amongst the panelists. Their storytelling will be prompted by questions such as: What was a key event along your path to becoming an AEA leader? What is an example of how being an AEA leader helped you influence the association or the field? What lessons did you learn along the way? By structuring the discussion around questions that those in the audience could also respond to, we hope to provide the scaffolding and space for others to add their stories.

Relevance Statement: This panel speaks to the need for transparency around the pathways to leadership in the field of evaluation and AEA. We expect our stories to encourage participants who might not have thought of themselves as future AEA board members and presidents to see that there are a range of paths to leadership. Of course, the AEA board, including presidents, is not the only form of leadership. The panelists have also been active in TIGs, publications, committees and task forces, and have contributed to evaluation scholarship and practice. These ways of serving the field and the association are part of the pathways to the formal leadership roles that will be shared in the stories.

The panel is particularly relevant to the Professional Practice and Interpersonal domains of the Competencies. By telling the stories of their paths to leadership, panelists inspire others to “deepen reflective practice, stay current, and build connections” (competency 1.7) and “foster positive relationships for professional practice and evaluation use” (competency 5.1). Building connections is a particular emphasis of the panel, with stories about the role of relationships in the process of growing into leadership. The panel also addresses the role of power and privilege (competency 5.5) in the path to leadership. The panelists themselves reflect the increased diversity of AEA leadership and AEA’s ongoing efforts to foster equitable access to leadership roles. Through intentional stories about the different paths to leadership, the panelists connect to AEA’s Guiding Principle of Common Good and Equity, especially E.4, which calls for transparency with the goal of equitable access, and E.5, which asks each of us to assess our own privilege and positioning.

This panel aims to be inspirational. By telling their pathway stories, panelists not only share lessons learned, they also create space for potential or nascent leaders to connect to past and current leaders. These stories and relationships can be part of their path to leadership.