For nearly 30 years, Methodist University’s Lura S. Tally Center for Leadership Development has equipped effective leaders in the community and now, the Center looks forward to an even brighter future as it has moved to the MU Reeves School of Business & Economics and has a new director.
For nearly 30 years, Methodist University’s Lura S. Tally Center for Leadership Development has equipped effective leaders in the community and now, the Center looks forward to an even brighter future as it has moved to the MU Reeves School of Business & Economics and has a new director.
“This is an exciting opportunity,” said Dr. Mark Regensburger, the new director of the Center and an assistant professor of Management at MU. “Leadership is about working with people, influencing people, communicating vision, creating a vision together, and getting people excited about it. Moving the Center into Reeves School of Business & Economics makes a lot of sense, empowering leaders to understand the business of leadership.”
Founded at Methodist University in 1995, the Lura S. Tally Center for Leadership Development promotes leadership among students and the community through three key areas: curricular academic programs, co-curricular leadership development opportunities, and community service programs.
The Center offers MU students a minor in Leadership Studies that can be added to any academic major. The minor includes a core of leadership courses plus electives that align with majors in Business Administration, Management, Communications & Media, Criminal Justice, and Public Administration.
Students can also participate in co-curricular leadership development opportunities such as the Center’s Leadership Fellows Program. Students who are nominated by MU faculty and staff can participate in a 2 or 3-year plan of leadership development that includes a mix of on-campus and off-campus training, workshops, conferences, participation in local business events, leader shadowing, and community service.
Within the co-curricular leadership development realm, Regensburger also hopes to bring back and enhance the Tally Leadership Speaker Series, which brought nationally recognized speakers such as Gov. Terry Sanford, Gov. James Hunt, and General Russel Honoré to MU’s campus from 1996-2021. Typically, the events were primarily geared towards students, but Regensburger believes they can become community-wide events.
“I was talking to former director Dr. Andrew Ziegler, and I brought to him the idea of holding the event in the evening so that both students and members of the community could attend,” said Regensburger, whose research focuses on leadership and leadership development in the workplace and the community.
The Lura S. Tally Center for Leadership Development also helps organize various community service programs like the Institute for Community Leadership, a joint community leadership program that provides local citizens an opportunity to participate in activities that lead to membership on local boards and commissions.
One of the Center’s most successful programs is the General Shelton Leadership Camp. The one-week summer residential experience allows high school students to expand their knowledge and skills of what it takes to be an effective leader. The camp includes lodging, meals, curriculum, low and high ropes training, transportation, and evening activities. This year’s General Shelton Leadership Camp is set for June 2-7, 2024. To learn more or apply to the camp, visit the camp’s homepage.
You can learn more about the Lura S. Tally Center for Leadership Development by visiting its webpage along with the Reeves School of Business & Economics.