Aleshire Center for Leadership and Community Engagement

Founded in 1998, the Institute for the Study and Practice of Leadership is designed to coordinate, enhance and augment the leadership traditions in Washburn University's curriculum and programs.  Central to this program is the teaching, learning and research carried on by the participants leading up to the granting of the Leadership Studies Certificate.

In 2009, the Institute was rebranded to officially become the Leadership Institute (LI) which offered an increased number of opportunities to students including more scholarships, an academic minor and co-curricular programs. Some of these programs include the Leadership Challenge Event™ (2011 - present), the High School Leadership Academy (2017 - 2021), and the Student Leadership Council (2010 - 2024). This expansion allowed the Institute to welcome any student interested in leadership to develop their skills and expand their educational opportunities outside of their academic major.

 In 2023, an idea to merge the LI and Washburn’s Learning in the Community (LinC) programs created the Aleshire Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement thanks to the generous endowment from longtime leadership supporters, Joe and Janet Aleshire. Leadership from both programs believed that by merging they would be able to provide more support, opportunity, and engagement to students. The center officially launched in the summer of 2024 with the goal of developing leaders through high-impact, community-engaged learning experiences.

The University Libraries support the study, teaching and research mission of the Aleshire Center by collecting materials in a variety of formats concerning the various aspects of interdisciplinary field of leadership in its broadest sense.  The Libraries collection supports this by collecting materials in many general applicable fields such as management, psychology and social psychology and sociology.

The collections of the University Libraries currently contain almost 1,000 books, a number of videos/DVDs, as well as a selection of print and online journal/magazine titles that deal with leadership in general as well in specific subject areas (such as education and nursing).  These collections are constantly being expanded as new resources are identified.