By Rick Vacek | November 17, 2025
The most notable exercise in the first Lead UTD sessions for 2025-26 asked the 17 participants to recall the first time they felt like a leader.
Some of the responses were typical:
“When I was in Boy Scouts.”
“When I was captain of my high school sports team.”
But then there was this:
“I don’t know if I ever felt like a leader, but I always was the person to get something done when it seemed like no one else was going to do it.”
There already have been many other revealing reactions to the Office of the Provost program that introduces new academic leaders at The University of Texas at Dallas to institutional information and, just as importantly, each other.
They quickly have coalesced by mixing those tales of humble beginnings with honest admissions of what they need to know today. To become a visionary, they say, you first must understand what you aren’t seeing … and this is the perfect place to focus on solutions.
“It’s a great opportunity to learn because I don’t know the questions that I’m not asking,” said Eric Van Leeuwen, Associate Provost for Curricular Services.
Dr. Jackie Nelson, who leads the Psychology Doctoral Program in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, emphasized the importance of humility in the process:
“Because everybody is new in their role and many people are new to UT Dallas, too, it’s just a really nice environment where everybody feels a little humbled by the fact that we’re trying to learn and share tips and strategies with other people.
“I’ve enjoyed that, getting to know more people around campus and just seeing that everybody is trying to do our best to serve students the best we can. That’s been a powerful experience.”
The program’s sixth cohort is the first to be led by Dr. Francesca Filbey, Senior Associate Provost for Faculty Success, and Teri Trice, Administrative Project Coordinator I. Their plans were influenced largely by attending an Academic Impressions workshop in Denver.
“That’s when I met other people who are developing academic leadership programs at their own institutions, so it wasn’t just people with established programs – it was people in the same shoes as me with the same questions I had,” Filbey said.
“They talked about other people who have these programs, how they developed theirs, what models they used, what they look like. I took elements from all those examples.”
The cohort is a mix of UT Dallas newcomers, some of whom have considerable leadership experience elsewhere, and first-time administrators who ascended within the University. They have one thing in common: They assumed their roles within the last three years.
One of their first assignments was to take the Five Paths to Leadership Self-Assessment, provided by Academic Impressions. The results illuminated what kind of leader they are – Critical Thinker, Relator, Visionary, Warrior or Sage.
“I think it’s helpful to look at that, particularly with a group of people,” said Van Leeuwen, who wasn’t surprised to learn that he’s a Relator. “I could see the folks who raised their hand with me when we were asked our specific leadership type. I looked at them and thought, ‘You’re a talker, too, aren’t you?’”
Adding to the table talk is the rotating seating chart for each session. Sitting with someone new every time means new opportunities for collaboration.
“It very quickly builds a safe community where you can say, ‘You know what? I’m not so great at this, and it sounds like you’re handling it well. What are you doing? What kind of strategies are you engaging in?’” said Dr. Tony Love, who heads the criminology program for the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences.
Sunela Thomas and Dr. Robin Paige perfectly represent the variety of backgrounds in the cohort.
Thomas’ resumé includes more than three decades in upper management for AT&T and Citi. Listening to her leadership philosophies and experiences is like opening a how-to manual, complete with the pet peeves her parents taught her – respect and accountability.
Nevertheless, the Director of the MS in Business Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Flex program in the Naveen Jindal School of Management was grateful to be chosen for Lead UTD, and the second session enumerated information that she needs in her latest administrative role.
“Man, the amount of data that we have – I had no idea,” she said. “Lead UTD will help me grow into any of the leadership roles here, learn from my peers and learn how I can bridge academics with industry. Because we do need to bridge.”
A leadership training program is nothing new to Paige, who arrived in August to become the first Vice Provost for Academic Success and Innovation after 18 years in higher education management. But these sessions also have value for her.
“What I like about Lead UTD,” she said, “is that it brings together administrators and faculty who are in leadership positions. That allows a lot of understanding and communication across the University that helps us gain better insights into how others are operating across the campus.
“I really like the way that it’s organized because I think that’s the most important part of these leadership training programs. You can really build these connections and build these relationships with people across campus and understand what they’re doing and hear how they’re feeling based on their perspectives.”
Those relationships are like having an ongoing reference guide in addition to the information shared in each monthly session and the printed materials in the Lead UTD binder each cohort member receives.
That leaves one final step.
Application.
“It allows us to readily see how we can use it day to day in the way that we operate within the University’s structure,” Love said. “Applying it right away shows the value. Every month I leave feeling enriched that I got at least one thing – usually it’s more than one thing – I can apply to my role.”
And that’s how you get something done.
