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In Service to the Nation, goal seven of Ernest Boyer and Lee
Mitgang’s seminal 1996 Building Community: A New Future for
Architecture Education and Practice, challenged the architectural
profession to actively embrace civic engagement as crucial to the
future of the profession and the country as a whole. “Perhaps
never before in history have the skills, the broad vision and the
ideals of the architecture profession been more urgently
needed.” wrote Boyer and Mitgang. The inaugural AIA Leadership
Institute that convened in Washington, DC in March 1997 was a
direct response to this challenge. Since 1997, successive classes
of architects have graduated from several conferences known as the
Leadership Institute.
At the AIA 2004 National Convention and Expo in Chicago, a group of
Leadership Institute alumni met and committed to the decision to
make leadership a core value for members. Over the next year the
group worked diligently to apply for knowledge community status. At
the close of 2005, the Committee on Leadership Education (CLE) has
been granted incubator status for 2006/7 and is committed to
facilitate research, and provide training for all architects to
lead in the profession, community, or political realms while
helping society gain a greater understanding of the importance of
architecture. The CLE advisory group plans to develop their charter
and seek to expand leadership opportunities for architects; to
empower new leaders; to nurture and promote leadership roles across
the full spectrum of an architect’s career and to advocate
opportunities for alliances with leaders in other professions.
In the fall of 2007 in a meeting of the Board Knowledge
Community, the Committee on Leadership Education was granted full
status as a Knowledge Community. Our goal is to continue the
mission and continue and grow the dialogue with all members to
share, and support the education of future leaders.
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