Conference Streams
Explore Our Conference Streams
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We owe a debt of gratitude to our stream leads—dedicated professionals who bring their expertise and passion to the forefront, making the ILA Global Conference a pivotal event for professional development. Their leadership and commitment help shape a dynamic environment where ideas flourish and professional networks strengthen.
Arts and Leadership
The Arts and Leadership community recognizes and embraces the value and power of the Arts to influence, strengthen, and improve all forms and contexts of leadership. Leadership research, development, decision-making, practice, improvisation, and wisdom benefit from the exploration, practice, and appreciation of all varieties of creative expression including visual arts, music, dance, multi-media, poetry, storytelling, graphic design, scenario development, storytelling, and theater. Engagement with the arts promotes inclusivity, imagination, flexibility, and new metaphors of perception that strengthen, transform, and inspire leadership, especially relevant during uncertain times of complex change. We welcome all approaches to arts and leadership.
Stream Leads: Dorothy Agger-Gupta, Lea Metz
Business Leadership
The purpose of the Business Leadership Member Community is to unite a global network of leaders and learners – business leaders, entrepreneurs, scholars, developmental practitioners, and students – to inspire, enrich and advance the practice of business leadership. transforming it into a powerful catalyst for positive change.
Stream Leads: Angela Craig, Kathleen Curran, Debra Mynar-Kowalchuk
Coaching and Leadership
The Coaching and Leadership stream brings together practitioners and scholars from around the world to explore the intersections of coaching and leadership. This stream welcomes a wide variety of coaching perspectives and works to create opportunities to connect, collaborate, and grow knowledge around coaching and leadership. We seek submissions that explore perspectives and intersections around various methodologies and types of coaching; mentoring, advising, or other helping relationship intersections with coaching and leadership are also welcome. We are committed to creating equitable opportunities for all. The stream looks forward to receiving submissions that advance the field of coaching and leadership.
Stream Leads: Mary Tabata, Andrew Wefald
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging (DEIB)
In today’s complex, diverse world it is imperative that both scholars and practitioners come together to help create a space of belonging. The focus of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) stream proposal is to provide content related to today’s issues that raise awareness related to all aspects of social advocacy and justice. The stream encourages proposals that demonstrate best practices, models, assessments, and theoretical perspectives that are emerging in the field.
Stream Leads: Joanne Barnes, Bjørn Ekelund
Ethics and Leadership
The Ethics and Leadership Member Community is an ongoing platform for discussions about research, practices, frameworks, and contextual approaches concerning ethics and leadership.
Stream Leads: Emily Schuck, Jeffrey Youngquist, Alexandra Perry
Followership
The Followership Member Community is dedicated to the development of knowledge, competencies, and programs concerning the leader-follower relationship. We focus on research, collaboration, and dissemination of ideas and information. We are a passionate group of academics and practitioners looking to engage in conversations for all things followership!
Stream Lead: Leah Sciabarrasi
Healthcare Leadership
The Healthcare Leadership Member Community aims to unite leadership educators, practitioners, consultants, administrators, and scholars from all healthcare-related settings. We offer a platform to exchange philosophies, conceptual approaches, curricula, programs, experiences, assessments, and scholarship to optimize healthcare leadership and followership. A proficient healthcare professional requires leadership knowledge, application, expertise, and collaboration. The healthcare stream at the global conference will provide opportunities for individual and team growth as innovations and awareness of leadership education and development will enhance patient outcomes and healthcare systems. Lastly, we strive to explore the significance of and find meaning in organizational leadership and followership within healthcare.
Stream Leads: Erin Barry, Suzanna Fitzpatrick, Tiffany Jordan, Bill Tholl, Neil Grunberg
Indigenous and First Peoples Leadership
We stream together with ancestral leadership, in the spirit of collective – generational leadership. In our time of prophecy, we are called to reweave Indigenous knowledge to nurture the power of our cultural identity and uplift wise practices in community leadership to vision our way forward. We carry a responsibility to catalyze Ethical Space and Two Eyed Seeing, gesturing towards Planetary Health transformation and Indigenous Futurisms. We welcome all of our relations to come together, share your gifts, wisdoms, and what you feel is relevant and needed now.
Stream Leads: Erin Dixon (Gizhagatte) and Dr. Lana Leslie (Kamilaroi)
Leadership Development
Leadership development improves both individual and collective leadership capabilities through activities such as training, workshops, experiential learning, resilience, self-care, mindfulness, coaching, and mentoring. The objective is to empower individuals and groups to guide themselves and others toward specific achievable goals that may change over time. The Leadership Development Member Community welcomes practitioners, scholars, teachers, students, coaches, trainers, and others who cultivate leadership knowledge and skills in themselves and others.
Stream Leads: Chrys Egan, Robin Roberts, Deirdre Dixon
Leadership Education
The Leadership Education stream is interested in sessions that serve leadership educators, professors, and teachers working in and/or interested in curricular or co-curricular programs in higher education institutions as well as primary and secondary (k-12) schools and other educational settings. We seek opportunities to share curricula, pedagogies, programs, and research to advance the how, what, and why of leadership education.
Stream Leads: Elizabeth Goryunova, Kyle O’Dell, Kyle Small
Leadership for Peace
The Leadership for Peace Member Community seeks researchers, educators, practitioners, and others who care about peace – in the mind and body, community, and in the world. Our aim is to draw thinkers and doers to focus on peace, peacebuilding, and developing, explaining, and educating for a culture of peace. Our hope is to increase the conditions for justice, tolerance, acceptance, hope and understanding anywhere and everywhere and for positive change in individuals, groups, organizations, and governments that lead to freedom from oppression, conflict and war, and aggression, through dialogue, action plans, research, practice, teaching, and learning.
Stream Leads: Lazarina Topuzova, Whitney McIntyre Miller
Leadership Scholarship
The Leadership Scholarship Stream offers a home for scholars across disciplines, from aspiring researchers to seasoned academics. It accepts research from multiple methodological traditions (e.g., qualitative, quantitative) and encourages innovative methodological practices. Further, it embraces theoretical and conceptual development and explores critical perspectives in leadership studies. The stream also offers a home for the professional and personal development of scholars, such as grant writing, interdisciplinary connections, publishing in journals, crafting book proposals, and transforming dissertations into articles. Ultimately, the stream aims to democratize access to high-quality scholarship, nurturing collaboration and advancing leadership research globally.
Stream Leads: Nathan Eva, Rich Whitney, LJ McElravy, Kerry Priest
Philosophy, Religion, and Worldviews
This stream and ILA member community promote an understanding of the healthy nexuses between leadership and philosophy, religion, and worldviews. Philosophy, religion, and worldviews touch the very core of human experience and address assumptions people make about life. These assumptions structure people’s leadership theories and practices. Evaluating leadership theories and practices at the most basic level will generate greater insights into the intersection of leadership with culture. We encourage philosophers and religious leaders to actively participate as a means to hone their leadership skills for use in their respective spheres of influence and to provide corresponding insights to others.
Stream Leads: Lisa Friesen, John Shoup, Chad Newton
Public Leadership
Issues in the public realm – e.g., climate change, health crises, inequality, poverty, violence – extend beyond a single sector. How do public leaders and their organizations address complex problems and achieve the common good? How can we create collective and relational leadership approaches that bring diverse groups and organizations together, so we can effectively work in a sustained way across boundaries and differences? Please share examples of new ways to teach, research, and practice public leadership, including policy change, community organizing, and cross-sector collaboration. We encourage you to collaborate with one another, and across streams and geographic regions.
Stream Leads: Ariel Kaufman, Chrys Egan
Sustainability Leadership
The Sustainability Leadership Member Community focuses on leadership for sustainability and regeneration and is seeking submissions designed to expand practices, contribute knowledge and insight, learn about, and engage around leadership that precipitates a more sustainable and regenerative future for the planet. We recognize the deep and interconnected social and environmental challenges that pervade our world, and we seek sessions in which we as leadership scholars, educators, and practitioners can address those challenges.
Stream Leads: William Smedick, Kate Sheridan
Women and Leadership
The Women and Leadership stream welcomes submissions that focus on the following areas: philosophical views, supporting women at all stages, future generations, wellness, and intersectionality. This includes perspectives on women’s roles, exploring gender equality, impact, and cultural norms, and supporting women in all stages of leadership, a lifelong process involving youth, mentorship, networking, and creating supportive environments. Within this focus, we recognize some women face adversity and challenges when navigating their leadership journeys while also dealing with the duality of race, ethnicity, and other identities. Additionally, we believe prioritizing wellness and maintaining balance are essential for women to thrive.
Stream Leads: Chanda Elbert, Merike Kolga
The Arts and Leadership community recognizes and embraces the value and power of the Arts to influence, strengthen, and improve all forms and contexts of leadership. Leadership research, development, decision-making, practice, improvisation, and wisdom benefit from the exploration, practice, and appreciation of all varieties of creative expression including visual arts, music, dance, multi-media, poetry, storytelling, graphic design, scenario development, storytelling, and theater. Engagement with the arts promotes inclusivity, imagination, flexibility, and new metaphors of perception that strengthen, transform, and inspire leadership, especially relevant during uncertain times of complex change. We welcome all approaches to arts and leadership.
Stream Leads: Dorothy Agger-Gupta, Lea Metz
The purpose of the Business Leadership Member Community is to unite a global network of leaders and learners – business leaders, entrepreneurs, scholars, developmental practitioners, and students – to inspire, enrich and advance the practice of business leadership. transforming it into a powerful catalyst for positive change.
Stream Leads: Angela Craig, Kathleen Curran, Debra Mynar-Kowalchuk
The Coaching and Leadership stream brings together practitioners and scholars from around the world to explore the intersections of coaching and leadership. This stream welcomes a wide variety of coaching perspectives and works to create opportunities to connect, collaborate, and grow knowledge around coaching and leadership. We seek submissions that explore perspectives and intersections around various methodologies and types of coaching; mentoring, advising, or other helping relationship intersections with coaching and leadership are also welcome. We are committed to creating equitable opportunities for all. The stream looks forward to receiving submissions that advance the field of coaching and leadership.
Stream Leads: Mary Tabata, Andrew Wefald
In today’s complex, diverse world it is imperative that both scholars and practitioners come together to help create a space of belonging. The focus of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) stream proposal is to provide content related to today’s issues that raise awareness related to all aspects of social advocacy and justice. The stream encourages proposals that demonstrate best practices, models, assessments, and theoretical perspectives that are emerging in the field.
Stream Leads: Joanne Barnes, Bjørn Ekelund
The Ethics and Leadership Member Community is an ongoing platform for discussions about research, practices, frameworks, and contextual approaches concerning ethics and leadership.
Stream Leads: Emily Schuck, Jeffrey Youngquist, Alexandra Perry
The Followership Member Community is dedicated to the development of knowledge, competencies, and programs concerning the leader-follower relationship. We focus on research, collaboration, and dissemination of ideas and information. We are a passionate group of academics and practitioners looking to engage in conversations for all things followership!
Stream Lead: Leah Sciabarrasi
The Healthcare Leadership Member Community aims to unite leadership educators, practitioners, consultants, administrators, and scholars from all healthcare-related settings. We offer a platform to exchange philosophies, conceptual approaches, curricula, programs, experiences, assessments, and scholarship to optimize healthcare leadership and followership. A proficient healthcare professional requires leadership knowledge, application, expertise, and collaboration. The healthcare stream at the global conference will provide opportunities for individual and team growth as innovations and awareness of leadership education and development will enhance patient outcomes and healthcare systems. Lastly, we strive to explore the significance of and find meaning in organizational leadership and followership within healthcare.
Stream Leads: Erin Barry, Suzanna Fitzpatrick, Tiffany Jordan, Bill Tholl, Neil Grunberg
We stream together with ancestral leadership, in the spirit of collective – generational leadership. In our time of prophecy, we are called to reweave Indigenous knowledge to nurture the power of our cultural identity and uplift wise practices in community leadership to vision our way forward. We carry a responsibility to catalyze Ethical Space and Two Eyed Seeing, gesturing towards Planetary Health transformation and Indigenous Futurisms. We welcome all of our relations to come together, share your gifts, wisdoms, and what you feel is relevant and needed now.
Stream Leads: Erin Dixon (Gizhagatte) and Dr. Lana Leslie (Kamilaroi)
Leadership development improves both individual and collective leadership capabilities through activities such as training, workshops, experiential learning, resilience, self-care, mindfulness, coaching, and mentoring. The objective is to empower individuals and groups to guide themselves and others toward specific achievable goals that may change over time. The Leadership Development Member Community welcomes practitioners, scholars, teachers, students, coaches, trainers, and others who cultivate leadership knowledge and skills in themselves and others.
Stream Leads: Chrys Egan, Robin Roberts, Deirdre Dixon
The Leadership Education stream is interested in sessions that serve leadership educators, professors, and teachers working in and/or interested in curricular or co-curricular programs in higher education institutions as well as primary and secondary (k-12) schools and other educational settings. We seek opportunities to share curricula, pedagogies, programs, and research to advance the how, what, and why of leadership education.
Stream Leads: Elizabeth Goryunova, Kyle O’Dell, Kyle Small
The Leadership for Peace Member Community seeks researchers, educators, practitioners, and others who care about peace – in the mind and body, community, and in the world. Our aim is to draw thinkers and doers to focus on peace, peacebuilding, and developing, explaining, and educating for a culture of peace. Our hope is to increase the conditions for justice, tolerance, acceptance, hope and understanding anywhere and everywhere and for positive change in individuals, groups, organizations, and governments that lead to freedom from oppression, conflict and war, and aggression, through dialogue, action plans, research, practice, teaching, and learning.
Stream Leads: Lazarina Topuzova, Whitney McIntyre Miller
The Leadership Scholarship Stream offers a home for scholars across disciplines, from aspiring researchers to seasoned academics. It accepts research from multiple methodological traditions (e.g., qualitative, quantitative) and encourages innovative methodological practices. Further, it embraces theoretical and conceptual development and explores critical perspectives in leadership studies. The stream also offers a home for the professional and personal development of scholars, such as grant writing, interdisciplinary connections, publishing in journals, crafting book proposals, and transforming dissertations into articles. Ultimately, the stream aims to democratize access to high-quality scholarship, nurturing collaboration and advancing leadership research globally.
Stream Leads: Nathan Eva, Rich Whitney, LJ McElravy, Kerry Priest
This stream and ILA member community promote an understanding of the healthy nexuses between leadership and philosophy, religion, and worldviews. Philosophy, religion, and worldviews touch the very core of human experience and address assumptions people make about life. These assumptions structure people’s leadership theories and practices. Evaluating leadership theories and practices at the most basic level will generate greater insights into the intersection of leadership with culture. We encourage philosophers and religious leaders to actively participate as a means to hone their leadership skills for use in their respective spheres of influence and to provide corresponding insights to others.
Stream Leads: Lisa Friesen, John Shoup, Chad Newton
Issues in the public realm – e.g., climate change, health crises, inequality, poverty, violence – extend beyond a single sector. How do public leaders and their organizations address complex problems and achieve the common good? How can we create collective and relational leadership approaches that bring diverse groups and organizations together, so we can effectively work in a sustained way across boundaries and differences? Please share examples of new ways to teach, research, and practice public leadership, including policy change, community organizing, and cross-sector collaboration. We encourage you to collaborate with one another, and across streams and geographic regions.
Stream Leads: Ariel Kaufman, Chrys Egan
The Sustainability Leadership Member Community focuses on leadership for sustainability and regeneration and is seeking submissions designed to expand practices, contribute knowledge and insight, learn about, and engage around leadership that precipitates a more sustainable and regenerative future for the planet. We recognize the deep and interconnected social and environmental challenges that pervade our world, and we seek sessions in which we as leadership scholars, educators, and practitioners can address those challenges.
Stream Leads: William Smedick, Kate Sheridan
The Women and Leadership stream welcomes submissions that focus on the following areas: philosophical views, supporting women at all stages, future generations, wellness, and intersectionality. This includes perspectives on women’s roles, exploring gender equality, impact, and cultural norms, and supporting women in all stages of leadership, a lifelong process involving youth, mentorship, networking, and creating supportive environments. Within this focus, we recognize some women face adversity and challenges when navigating their leadership journeys while also dealing with the duality of race, ethnicity, and other identities. Additionally, we believe prioritizing wellness and maintaining balance are essential for women to thrive.
Stream Leads: Chanda Elbert, Merike Kolga
Discover Your Path at the ILA Global Conference
Join us at the ILA Global Conference, where every session is a gateway to new insights and professional growth. Our carefully curated conference streams correspond to the ILA member communities or key topics that are vital to our ongoing conversations about leadership.
Before the Conference
Join and Plan Ahead
Enhance your conference experience by becoming an ILA member before or during conference registration. Join our 14 Member Communities, connect with ILA members, community leaders, and stream leads, and engage in pre-conference discussions right away.
During the Conference
Network Face-to-Face
Experience the full impact of our annual global conference by engaging with community leaders and peers in your chosen streams. Participate in diverse sessions and special events crafted to strengthen your professional relationships and broaden your leadership knowledge.
After the Conference
Continue Your Professional Growth
Keep the conversations going and maintain the connections you’ve made through your ILA membership. Enjoy year-round access to member communities, leadership resources, events, and collaborative projects that enhance your professional journey and contribute to your continuous learning.