Sunflower County Consolidated School District Director of Personnel and Student Affairs William Murphy has been chosen for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network Class Two.
Out of 800 applicants, 80 were chosen to participate in this year’s program, which is an 18-month fellowship that is organized into cohorts based in Mississippi, Michigan, New Mexico and New Orleans, along with one national cohort.
Murphy said that he hopes to use this opportunity to better the Sunflower County community and the school district.
“We are very impressed with the high caliber of these fellows, and we are excited to work with this talented new class to explore what’s possible for creating equity at the local, state, tribal, regional and national levels,” said CCL President and CEO John R. Ryan. CCL was asked to lead the program based on its 50-year track record of cutting-edge research, practice and training that develops leaders for the benefit of society.
Through hands-on training, mentoring and practical experience, the fellowship prepares leaders to rise to the challenges of our time, a release from the foundation said. The program offers opportunities to understand the embedded racism in our systems and learn practical approaches to heal and unite communities around solutions.
“Our founder understood that visionary leaders have the power to bring communities together and create lasting change for children,” said La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO of the Kellogg Foundation. “Class Two is part of our legacy of developing local leaders. They join a network of thousands of fellows that spans decades of work in communities. Their ideas, passion and wisdom are crucial to creating equitable opportunity for children and families.”
The first fellows’ gathering will be held in Battle Creek, Michigan, in March 2019, the release said, where they will begin to get to know each other, explore their own leadership styles, learn ways to be agile in leading change and practice communicating with vision and purpose.
