Academic Leadership Beyond the Academy

In this chapter, Estrem writes about how she “transferred” knowledge and skills she gained in academic leadership (primarily as a writing program director) to a different context: state education policy work. She explains how the two contexts differ, as well as what they share. What becomes clear in her telling is that transferring leadership knowledge and skills is less a practice of application than of reinvention. That reinvention, however, continues to be grounded in values and guided by previous experiences. In particular, Estrem advocates that leaders in any context emphasize relational processes over specific institutional outcomes.