DJ Ryu, director of CAFNR’s Division of Food, Nutrition and Exercise Sciences, and Jay Thelen, professor and associate chair, Division of Biochemistry, represented Mizzou among 84 individuals from across the country who completed the LEAD21 leadership-development program. The 21st class of LEAD21 represented land-grant institutions and their strategic partners from across the nation.

Over the course of the past year, Ryu and Thelen met regularly with their peers, both in-person and virtually, to enhance their personal leadership capacity. The graduation was held at the culmination of the third in-person session, where the focus was on organizational leadership through collaboration, communication and leading change.

The primary purpose of LEAD21 is to develop leaders in land-grant institutions and their strategic partners who link research, academics and extension to lead more effectively in an increasingly complex environment, either in their current positions or future leadership positions.

Goals of LEAD21 are to enhance application of skills and knowledge across a set of nine leadership competencies, to develop a network of peer leaders to enhance personal leadership practice, collaboration and variety of perspective and to develop and implement an individual’s leadership development process.

For more information about LEAD21, visit www.lead-21.org