A Transformational Experience for Senior Leadership Teams
Colleges and universities today face extraordinary challenges: societal polarization, declining public trust, and the demand to prepare students for a rapidly evolving world. The CDI Leadership Institute supports a carefully selected cohort of higher education leaders committed to cultivating constructive dialogue on their campuses.
This program is an invitation-only, year-long program which provides leadership teams with protected time, structured facilitation, and a peer cohort to develop and implement two to four concrete strategic initiatives on their campuses.
An invitation-only executive leadership program
Grounded in evidence-based, nonpartisan dialogue principles
A cohort-based strategic planning and implementation initiative
The Leadership Institute experience begins with a diagnostic of each institution's own culture, exploring where inquiry, dialogue, and free expression are already strong, and where they are under strain. That diagnostic becomes the foundation for a two-day Summit in Washington, DC, where leadership teams work alongside peer institutions to pressure-test assumptions, run future scenarios, and create shared direction.
For the full year that follows, a dedicated CDI coach meets with each team monthly to support ongoing work under real institutional conditions, while a peer learning community keeps teams connected to the rest of their cohort, trading what's working and what's stalling in real time.
Leadership Institute cohorts are small and deliberately selected. CDI groups institutions by shared context — scale, governance, and the pressures they're actually navigating — so peer exchange is grounded in shared experience.
From the diagnostic through the year-long coaching and community support, institutions advance a shared direction that their teams can sustain.
From shared vision to campus action
The Leadership Institute gives senior teams dedicated time to learn with peers, set priorities, and develop initiatives that strengthen inquiry, dialogue, and free expression on their campuses.
Program Format
A two-day in-person summit in Washington, D.C., followed by an eight-month virtual learning community.
Participants
University presidents, provosts, and senior leaders from diverse institutions
Outcomes
Cohort members leave with campus-specific blueprints, practical skills for leading dialogue, and an ongoing network of trusted peers.
What Leaders Gain
Institutions that have taken part in the CDI Leadership Institute report the following benefits:
Clarity of Purpose: A unified sense of mission and vision around free expression and inclusion.
Practical Tools: Stakeholder mapping, conflict management, and strategic communication skills for divisive moments.
Peer Community: Access to a supportive network of like-minded leaders who share resources and best practices.
Sustained Momentum: An ongoing community of practice, ensuring that initial insights continue to inform campus initiatives throughout the academic year.
Meet the Leadership Institute cohorts
The CDI Leadership Institute gives senior campus leaders time to learn from peers and develop practical plans for strengthening inquiry, dialogue, and free expression at their institutions. Meet the universities that joined the first two cohorts.
2025 cohort
Leaders from Brown University, Dartmouth, Duke University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University, Tufts University, Vanderbilt University, and Yale University came together to share approaches to campus dialogue and develop initiatives for their institutions.
2024 cohort
The inaugural cohort brought together leaders from American University, Claremont McKenna College, Ohio Wesleyan University, St. Lawrence University, and Virginia Tech. Together, they explored how to turn a commitment to constructive dialogue into plans for their campuses.
The Constructive Dialogue Institute has given us the tools, training, and opportunity to connect more effectively with one another, our campus, and our world. Colleges are meant to model the conditions for democracy. It's our mission to develop students who become effective global citizens. Being able to understand one another, talk to one another, and manage conflict more effectively is the empowering key to not just democracy, but peace. We need that. Our world needs that even more.
The 2025 cohort of the Constructive Dialogue Leadership Institute was made possible by a generous gift from the Templeton Religion Trust.
The 2024 cohort of the Constructive Dialogue Leadership Institute was made possible by a generous gift from the Mike and Sofia Segal Foundation.