ACEP's Leadership Development Advisory Group Helps Mentor, Guide Future Leaders - Page 2 of 3 - ACEP Now

Figure 1. Timeline for Leadership
Source: ACEP’s Leadership Development Advisory Group (LDAG)

Prior to the LDAG’s formation, the ACEP Nominating Committee had the onerous task of contacting dozens of individuals to entice them to run for an elected position. This is inherently wrong because a nominating committee shouldn’t influence future leaders, and ideally, the right individual shouldn’t have to be asked to run for a leadership position. He or she should already know when they’re ready. Most importantly, it’s hoped that future leaders will have the tenacity, motivation, and courage to submit their own nomination or to ask their component body to submit the nomination on their behalf.

Thankfully, those days are long past. Since the LDAG’s inception, we’re seeing many self-nominations, a marker of the LDAG’s efforts and success. Today, the Nominating Committee’s primary role is to vet the ever-increasing number of nominations submitted.

In addition to staying in contact with “A-list potentials,” LDAG members continue to reach out to individuals and mentor them in their leadership skills. A very important aspect of the process is the ability to recognize greatness in future leaders who may not be aware of their own hidden potential. At present, the LDAG and the National/Chapter Relations Committee are working together to improve member leadership resources available through the ACEP website.

One extremely difficult challenge involves maintaining a high level of diversity amongst our leadership. Diversity in our college isn’t just about gender and ethnicity, but also about chapter size and geographic location, and professional background (i.e., academics or democratic groups or big contract groups, experience in billing and coding or reimbursement issues, experience in advocacy, or in other association leadership).

The LDAG has a comprehensive list of councilors who they are guiding toward future high-level college leadership. But the LDAG’s work goes beyond the council: Any ACEP member can ask for leadership training and guidance. Please feel free to email me (mcoppola@acep.org) or Sonja Montgomery, CAE, governance operations director (smontgomery@acep.org) for more information on the resources available.

Dr. Coppola is chair of the ACEP Leadership Development Advisory Group. Ms. Montgomery is governance operations director for ACEP.