Ten government, business, academic, clergy, and nonprofit leaders from Middle Tennessee have been chosen by Global Action Platform for a Harvard Business School leadership program convening representatives from fourteen American cities who are working across sectors to help their communities prosper.

The ten Nashville leaders selected to participate in the Harvard leadership program this June are

1.      Andrea Blackman, Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County

2.      Ashlee Davis, Senior Manager—Diversity and Inclusion, AllianceBernstein

3.      Bonnie Dow, Dean of Academic Initiatives, College of Arts and Sciences, Vanderbilt University

4.      Brian Hassett, President and CEO, United Way of Greater Nashville

5.      Mike Molinar, General Manager, Big Machine Music

6.      Joanne Pulles, President, HCA Healthcare Foundation

7.      Tara Scarlett, President, The Scarlett Family Foundation

8.      Lissa Smith, cannon pastor, Christ Church Cathedral

9.      Michael P. Thompson, Executive Director, JPMorgan

10.   Marcie Allen Van Mol, President and Founder, MAC Presents

The Young American Leaders Program grows out of a deep concern and a great hope shared by Global Action Platform and the Harvard Business School’s ongoing project on U.S. competitiveness. The concern is that the local, shared resources which drive American prosperity are not keeping pace with global standards. U.S. workforce skills, schools, and infrastructure, for instance, are not improving fast enough or, in too many cases, are deteriorating. As a result, an unsustainable divergence has gripped the U.S. economy: working- and middle-class Americans are struggling, even as firms and individuals who can tap global opportunities are thriving. Prosperity is being generated but not shared as broadly as desired.  The COVID pandemic has underscored these challenges and reinforced the need for collaboration and inclusive prosperity at the center of the Young American Leaders Program.

Our hope springs from the local level. In cities and regions across the country, we see local policymakers, businesspeople, nonprofit leaders, educators, clergy, and others coming together across sectors to build skills, improve schools, restore infrastructure to build a foundation for economic growth and shared prosperity.

Ten leaders from fourteen cities across the U.S. are selected by senior community leaders in those cities to participate each June in an intensive case study workshop on urban and rural regional collaborations and strategies for economic resilience.  Other participating cities include Boston, Columbus, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Salt Lake City, and Seattle, among others.  The program was launched to develop leaders who understand cross-sector collaborations for shared prosperity and can implement them more effectively and spread them more rapidly than in the past.

“Global Action Platform is committed to advancing local innovation cluster economic growth for shared prosperity,” notes Dr. Massey.  “We are pleased to be the regional affiliate of Porter’s Institute at Harvard and to be working with them on the Young American Leaders Program and other projects.  Through this collaboration, we hope to help enable emerging and established local leaders to work together for the shared growth and prosperity of our region in today’s global economy.”  Linda Peek Schacht, founding Director, Andrews Institute for Leadership, Lipscomb University, is an advisor/facilitator for the Nashville program, which receives ongoing local program support from Global Action Platform.

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