NASHVILLE, Tenn.; January 21, 2017 – The Dr. Katherine Y. Brown Leadership Academy (KYB Leadership Academy), a nonprofit that aims to empower young African-American women, launched its 2017 year by hosting a leadership retreat with their 2016 and 2017 cohorts.
The mission of KYB Leadership Academy is to educate, train, coach, and mentor ladies with a focus on building skills that contribute to leadership development, civic engagement, and social responsibility. The organization’s primary focus is to grow and expand the capacity of women leaders to contribute to improving community life.
To kick off 2017 the organization presented the first of four modules that will be hosted throughout the year. The program modules are very detailed and help to ensure that the program has a measurable impact in the community. The first module was titled Introduction to Leadership and Effective Communication.
“The first module was a comprehensive leadership retreat much like ones used in corporate America,” said founder Dr. Katherine Y. Brown. “When participants can immediately tell you how they can apply the information learned into their daily lives you know you are making a difference.”
During their time together the participants experienced a leadership session where they completed an online assessment facilitated by Roberta Pettis, President and Co-Founder of FocusWorks Consulting Group. Known as the the Ntrinsx assessment, this interactive team building tool identified measurable goals relating to leadership style and strategies. This lead to a discussion surrounding communication, leadership, conflict, stress management and more.
The young ladies were also visited by Dr. Dorsha James, Honorable Judge Rachel Bell, and
former principal Gracie Porter. Each of these community leaders spoke to the participants about the importance of communication in growing as an effective leader.
In addition to the workshops focused on leadership, the participants also spent time in activities that helped grow their personal relationships. This allows for the 2016 cohort to develop as mentors to the class of 2017. “Many professional women identify how a lack of mentors impacted them professionally,” explained Dr. Brown. “It is important that of mentoring the young ladies in the academy are learning first hand the importance of both being mentored and mentoring others.”
The retreat concluded with Dr. Lesia Crumpton Young, Vice President, Tennessee State University facilitating a vision board session which included a seminar on leadership principles and practice.
