Harvard Business School welcomed the inaugural class of their Young American Leadership Program in June in an effort to develop teams of young leaders from around the country who are active in making their local communities more prosperous.  

Ten person teams from nine selected cities including Nashville gathered for three intense days in which the group learned about cross sector collaboration for shared prosperity – studying best and worst practices from across the country and around the world.

After the experience on campus, each city team was encouraged to apply ideas in ways which benefited their hometown. The young leaders will remain connected to each other, the HBS faculty and future cohorts.  The ultimate goal is to develop a cadre of young leaders who are able and eager to work across traditional boundaries to help their communities thrive. Leading HBS faculty who worked with the student leaders included Michael Porter, Jan Rivkin, David Gergen and Rosabeth Moss Cantor.

Young American Leaders Program grew out of Harvard Business School’s ongoing project on U.S. Competitiveness. Realizing the importance of grassroots efforts in revitalizing the U.S., the faculty sought to answer the question, “What can leaders in business, government, labor, education and other sectors do to support the success of companies in the U.S. while improving the living standard of the average American?”

Global Action Platform served as the partner organization for the Young American’s Program in Nashville.  Global Action convened a steering committee to nominate young leaders from Nashville to participate in the project. In preparation for the session, Global Action partnered with the Andrews Institute for Civic Leadership at Lipscomb University to host a dinner and overview the week prior to the conference. A debrief session will be held for the group in Nashville at the upcoming Global Action Summit. The Global Action Platform will encourage engagement of the group for the benefit of Nashville and Middle Tennessee.  Outcomes from the Young American Leadership Program will guide activities of the Global Action Fellows Program.

The first class of delegates from Nashville included:

John Ayers – EVP, Ayers Asset Management

Landon Gibbs – Partner, Clayton Associates

Caleb Graves – Director, Business Development, Nashville Healthcare Council

Marcus Whitney – President, Jumpstart Foundry

Penny Judd – Director, Community Relations, TVA

Stacey Levine – Urban Design, Collaborative Design Workshop

Shaka Mitchell – Mitchell Law firm, Belmont University

Laura Moore – Vice President of Policy, Greater Nashville Chamber of Commerce