The Leshner Leadership Institute was an initiative of AAAS that brought together five distinct, annual cohorts of public engagement fellows from an area of research at the nexus of science and society for intensive public engagement and science communication training and public engagement plan development.
Each year, AAAS Leshner Fellows were selected from disciplines at the nexus of an important science-society issue. They convened for a week of intensive public engagement and science communication training and public engagement plan development. In addition to their individual plan, they are undertook collaborative projects with one or more other fellows over the course of the year.
AAAS Leshner Fellows returned to their institutions with a renewed commitment to develop and implement public engagement activities, train and mentor other scientists in their communities, and promote public engagement within their institutions. Visit About the Leshner Leadership Institute for more information about the program, and see the Faces of the Fellowship document for highlights of past fellows' public engagement activities.
Over the program’s five years, Leshner Fellows collectively engaged tens of thousands of people through their engagement activities. The fellows also built public engagement capacity within their scientific institutions, disciplines, networks, and communities, including through sharing what they have learned in their work as AAAS Leshner Fellows with hundreds of their students and colleagues. AAAS recently completed an evaluation of the program: see the executive summary and full report here.
Resources
- Frontiers in Communication Article Featuring the Leshner Leadership Institute (January 2022)
- Executive Summary of Leshner Leadership Institute Retrospective Evaluation (December 2021)
- Lasting Impacts of the Leshner Leadership Institute: Retrospective Evaluation Report (December 2021)
- Faces of the Fellowship: Highlights from the First Five Years (2016-2020)
- Building Institutional Capacity for Public Engagement: Examples from the AAAS Leshner Leadership Institute (December 2018)
