2026 Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) STEM Leadership Institute

STEM LEADER is not a role. It is a state of being.

Undergraduate STEM reform is a complex systems challenge, requiring leaders who can read and reshape institutional culture, align strategy with mission, and translate vision into sustained action. This kind of leader is self-aware, grounded in their values, and willing to engage in the reflective work necessary to understand how their assumptions, behaviors, and positionality shape the very systems they seek to transform. 

The process of developing this kind of leader is not technical. It is deeply human. 

AAC&U’s Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) STEM Leadership Institute® is an immersive leadership development experience grounded in an embodied practice that requires continuous alignment between who one is, how one shows up, and what one seeks to change. By investing in the humanity of more STEM leaders on campus, this institute strengthens the very infrastructure through which institutional transformation occurs – ultimately ensuring that this nation’s efforts to improve teaching and workforce preparation are not episodic, but enduring.

This Institute is designed for early- and mid-career STEM faculty, principal investigators, senior project staff, and administrators who are ready to engage in real-time sensemaking and sustained reflection. It is intentionally experiential. Participants do not simply learn about change – they practice it. They apply theory directly to their institutional contexts, interrogate their own leadership habits, and develop the capacity to act within complexity – iteratively, relationally, and sometimes imperfectly. The Institute also features exclusive access to the My Tenure Trek® (MTT) higher education simulation, which surfaces and critically examines assumptions about meritocracy, credibility, and legitimacy in the academy. Through this simulation, participants encounter evidence-informed, real-world narratives of those whose perspectives and lived experiences differ from their own – thereby expanding their capacity to lead with empathy, contextual intelligence, and discernment.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND 

The PKAL STEM Leadership Institute supports leaders who do not simply implement change—but become the conditions through which change is possible. This institute is designed for

• early- to mid-career STEM faculty
• principal investigators
• senior project staff
• administrators

WHAT PARTICIPANTS WILL GAIN

Participants of the PKAL STEM Leadership Institute will gain actionable strategies and organizational change pathways to support deep, meaningful change.

Organized around a CORE framework - Consciousness, Ownership, Resonance, and Embodiment – the institute offers:

• in-depth DiSC leadership assessment and analysis by certified practitioners and mentors;

• guided, experiential learning activities that mirror authentic and contextually valid leadership challenges;
• self-reflective mindfulness practices with certified mindfulness teachers and practitioners;
• executive coaching sessions with certified academic coaches and experienced STEM faculty and administrators who challenge, provoke, support, and inspire change; and
• strategic community relationship and partnership building with colleagues tackling similar challenges at their own institutions.

BEYOND THE INSTITUTE

The PKAL STEM Leadership Institute is not a one-and-done leadership development experience. It is the entry point to an enduring professional connection that shapes how participants lead throughout their entire careers.

Institute alumni are welcomed into a national community of hundreds of STEM leaders who are connected through this shared institute experience, a deepened consciousness of themselves as leaders, and an evidence-based view of institutional systems and structures and how to leverage them for long-term change and impact.

Alumni also receive early information and access to other AAC&U STEM professional development opportunities, travel awards, conferences, and funding programs.

PKAL STEM Leadership Institute – Not a program to attend, but a space to become.