Photograph of Ujima Donalson

A Note from Ujima Donalson, POD Director

When I started at POD as a training and business development specialist in 2007, I felt excited to be entering higher ed and had goals for myself and my career, but my future path wasn't yet clear. Fast-forward to today and here I am, firmly rooted at the UW. Nearly everything about my role within POD has changed over the past eight years, but one key piece remains near and dear to me, which is facilitating the Strategic Leadership Program. Not only do I feel a kinship with many of our SLP participants because I myself know what it's like to be the new leader of an existing team here at the UW, it rejuvenates me to help leaders learn, discover, and grow.


This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of the Strategic Leadership Program, which was, and still is, the first centrally funded program for supervisors at the UW. After years of leading groups of UW supervisors through SLP, seeing our positive evaluation ratings, and hearing anecdotes from SLP grads, I know that SLP makes a huge difference for leaders on an individual level and also contributes to an enhanced workplace culture and organizational effectiveness. The program was designed to combine self-awareness with organizational awareness, policy knowledge with interpersonal skills, and tactics with strategy, and I believe that providing leaders with such a multi-faceted curriculum recognizes the complexities of good leadership and has been crucial to SLP’s success.

Another key ingredient is the participants themselves. In SLP, we always say "the wisdom is in the room," and many activities are designed to extract that knowledge, build rapport, and encourage leaders to share their perspectives and expertise. To honor the wisdom and experience of our participants, for this issue of the Leading Edge we asked SLP grads from different areas of the University to share what they gained from their SLP experience.

This issue of the Leading Edge celebrates fifteen years of SLP and also fifteen years of making a difference, as we in POD strive to do with individuals and organizations across the UW. To that end, POD has continued to expand our offerings for leaders at the UW, which you can read more about in my article about next-level leadership development in this issue. Finally, as some of you already know, SLP is in the running for a prestigious award that recognizes top leadership development programs. We recently received notice that SLP has made the top ten list (first-place winners will be announced in February), and I am absolutely delighted to have the value of this UW program recognized nationally.

I'd like to extend a huge thank you to all who have participated in SLP and have contributed so much to the program, to each other, and to the University.

Autumn 2015 | Return to Issue Home