Mitchell Center Researchers Featured in Maine Policy Review Special Issue on Leadership

The current issue of the Maine Policy Review (MPR) contains articles by five Mitchell Center faculty members, including an introduction by Senior Fellow Linda Silka who is also the executive editor of MPR. Other authors include David Hart, Karen H. Bieluch, Sandra De Urioste-Stone, and Aaron Weiskittel.

As Silka writes in the introduction, the special issue delves into a wide array of leadership issues in Maine and features leadership programs in many different contexts: business, K–12 education, higher education, health care and nonprofit organizations, politics, and tourism. The articles show leaders who encounter diverse challenges and cover leadership training aimed at different groups: nonprofits, youth, municipal leaders, and teachers.

Writes Silka, “Across the articles, we see a recurring theme of how to learn from each other given our varied contexts: rural and urban, north and south, and local, regional, or state levels. Some articles delve deeply into one sector; others look across sectors and compare them.”

In his commentary, “Teamwork is the New Leadership,” David Hart, director of the Mitchell Center, writes, “Because sustainability problems involve a tangled mix of economic, social, and environmental issues, they are a good example of the kinds of problems that can benefit from innovative leadership models.” Hart goes on to highlight some of the lessons that Mitchell Center members have learned about teams and leadership, including the many benefits of creating teams with diverse forms of knowledge and know-how.

Other articles involving Mitchell Center members include, “Leadership as Partnership” (Bieluch), and “Collaborative Leadership Is Key for Maine’s Forest Products Industry” (De Urioste-Stone, Weiskittel).

Silka also penned an article in the Bangor Daily News about the special issue.