Major gift launches Selander Center for Engineering Leadership

A significant gift to Cornell Engineering will establish the Nancy and Bob Selander Center for Engineering Leadership, making leadership development a central component of the college's undergraduate education, graduate training and faculty development.

The Selander Center's impact will be immediate, launching a new "Leadership for All" initiative, which will ensure that all Cornell Engineering undergraduates - beginning with this fall's first-year students - receive training in leadership skills. The more than 800 incoming students in the Class of 2028 will receive one-on-one coaching in the fall 2024 semester as they work to define their core values and the impact they want to have as engineers. This will be the first step in a multiyear program that weaves training in fundamental leadership skills, including effective listening and seeking feedback, into the curriculum.

"Modern engineering practice demands more than technical excellence - it requires experts who are also skillful communicators and can excel as members of complex teams," said Lynden Archer, the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering. "Our goal is to equip every student who graduates from Cornell Engineering with the skills required to achieve all-around excellence in these areas. The Selanders have been incredible partners in making this vision possible."

The gift establishing the center comes from Nancy and Bob Selander '72, whose careers have exemplified the importance of strong leadership. As a certified executive coach, Nancy Selander has spent the last two decades helping managers build leadership skills to have the greatest impact in their careers and personal lives. Bob Selander, a member of the Cornell Board of Trustees, has managed thousands of employees at multinational corporations, retiring as CEO of Mastercard in 2010 after decades in the global payments industry.

"Cornell engineers have long distinguished themselves as individual contributors," Bob Selander said. "Nancy and I are excited to see more students further empowered with leadership skills to enable graduates to make even more meaningful contributions."

Cornell Engineering originally launched its Engineering Leadership Program in 2012, introducing team and leadership skills development as a priority within and beyond the traditional undergraduate curriculum. Thanks to investments from the Selanders in 2016 and 2020, the program has added staff and quickly emerged as a national model for engineering leadership education, though the number of students able to participate has remained limited by the program's size.

With the latest support from the Selanders, the college is now positioned to significantly scale the existing programs to ultimately reach all undergraduates through "Leadership for All" and other initiatives, making engineering leadership a highly visible and defining feature of a Cornell Engineering education.

"Collaboration, communication and ethical leadership are part of the modern practice of engineering. These are the skills that allow engineers to translate technical knowledge into action and impact, and ought to be embedded in every student's experience," said Erica Dawson, Ph.D. '03, the Nancy and Bob Selander Executive Director of the Engineering Leadership Program. "With the Selanders' support, Cornell Engineering is shaping the national narrative around engineering education."

Dawson will serve as the inaugural director of the Selander Center and an assistant dean of the college.

"We aim to empower our entire community - including our faculty and staff, as well as our students - to uphold high standards for leading and participating in teams," Archer said. "The person leading these efforts must have a bird's-eye view into the workings of our college in order to bring a broad perspective to this work, and I am thrilled to welcome Erica to my leadership team."

The Selander Center will continue to administer and build upon the Engineering Leadership Program's many established initiatives, including the Simpkins Family COMPASS Program, which connects students with alumni and peer mentors, and the Engineering Leadership Certification Program, a yearlong, cohort-based program focusing on personal and professional growth. Other offerings include support for student project teams, individual and team coaching, embedded training in team-based technical courses, leadership skills clinics and more.

In recent years, leadership content has been embedded in a dozen group-based engineering courses, including those taught by Kyle Harms, senior lecturer in information science.

"The past several semesters, the Engineering Leadership Program has helped my students learn effective teamwork through guest lecturers and team evaluations. It's made a huge difference in my classes," Harms said. "The students communicate better with each other, they are explicit in their goals and planning, and they are often able to resolve conflicts without me intervening."

Beyond developing and implementing new programs, Dawson and her team focus on objectively measuring outcomes and evaluating the impact of their work. The center's faculty and staff are actively conducting research to establish best practices in STEM leadership development, and they plan to host symposia with peer institutions to discuss strategy and assessment.

Ultimately, the Selanders said they hope the center will build upon Cornell Engineering's legacy of graduating outstanding engineers and skilled problem-solvers by paving the way for them to emerge as confident and competent leaders.

Corey Earle '07 is the principal gifts associate team lead in Alumni Affairs and Development.

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