Fostering Change for Academic Library Leaders Cohort

About the Program

The annual Fostering Change for Academic Library Leaders cohort is a nine-week, virtual leadership development program that aims to build a community of inclusive leaders and change agents in academic libraries. The 2026 cohort will run from June 1 through July 31, 2026.

Library workers often recognize the need to initiate a change in their organizations but may have no idea where to start. In this cohort experience, participants will gain the tools to spark, lead, and sustain change no matter your organizational position. You will also gain a network of peers to lean on as you lead change.

This program builds on ACRL’s open access Fostering Change: A Team-Based Guide, co-authored with Dani Cook and published in 2020, and the two ensuing team-based cohorts developed with Dani Cook and Sojourna Cunningham and offered in 2021 and 2022.

To hear the results of the 2025 pre-cohort survey and how the program provides practical strategies for working with change stakeholders and cultivating leadership capacity, check out the recording of ACRL Presents: Fostering Change for Academic Library Leaders (April 2025).

Register today!

Why You Should Participate

Fostering Change for Academic Library Leaders focuses on helping you explore your identity as a change leader, regardless of role or positionality. The facilitators will empower you as change agents, guiding you in identifying how to actualize change. You will learn practical strategies for working with change stakeholders inside and outside of the library and cultivate your leadership capacity to address the challenges facing academic libraries.

The cohort is for you if:

You are in or want to move into formal leadership or management roles.
You want to grow professionally and expand your leadership capacity.
You are or work for interim leaders.
You are a library worker seeking effective strategies for and community in meeting the evolving needs of our campuses.

Previous participants have said:

"It was a welcoming and thoughtful community of co-learners that provided support and encouragement during a challenging time of anticipated and unexpected change."
"The instructors created an excellent learning environment. The readings, presentations, and discussions were all thought provoking and relevant to my work."
"Fostering Change supercharged our team at just the right time to navigate organizational change in our library."
"Thank you for offering this! Brianna and Cinthya were wonderful, and I hope I have the opportunity to work with them both again!"

Learning Outcomes

Participants will leave the cohort with a toolkit of change leadership practices that will help you take your library from where it is today to a new imagined future. Through a mix of facilitator-led presentations and candid cohort conversations, you will examine your organization’s cultural readiness for change, create inclusive change processes, and develop skills to lead effective change. Upon completion of the cohort, participants will receive the content from all facilitator presentations, a change leadership toolkit, readings to complement Fostering Change, and a certificate of completion.

Schedule

The cohort meets every Tuesday from the weeks of June 1 through July 27, 2026, from 12 pm to 1:30 pm Eastern / 11 am to 12:30 pm Central / 10 am to 11:30 am Mountain / 9 am to 10:30 am Pacific.

Week 1: June 1-5 | Exploring Your Role as Change Leader
Week 2: June 8-12 | Leadership Models and Change
Week 3: June 15-19 | Psychology of Change
Week 4: June 22-26 | Co-Creating Change
Week 5: June 29-July 3 | Fostering a Culture of Change
Week 6: July 6-July 10 | Planning, Executing, and Assessing Change
Week 7: July 13-17 | Learning Through Change
Week 8: July 20-24 | Your Role as a Change Leader: Moving Forward
Week 9: July 27-31 | Cohort Wrap-Up
Optional post-cohort coaching session the week of August 10

Facilitators

Cinthya Ippoliti (she/her) is University Library Dean at Cal State San Marcos. She is the co-author of Fostering Change: A Team-Based Guide and co-editor of Critical Library Leadership: Managing Self and Others in Today's Academic Library, both published by ACRL. You can email her at cmilib3957@gmail.com.

Brianna Marshall (she/her) is Dean of the Library at Northern Kentucky University’s Steely Library. She is the co-author of Fostering Change: A Team-Based Guide, published by ACRL, and editor of the book The Complete Guide to Personal Digital Archiving, published by ALA Press. Her research interests include library administration, change management in academic libraries, and open data and infrastructure. You can email her at marshallb7@nku.edu.

Registration and Scholarship

Register today!
Register for the 2026 cohort here. Registration closes on Friday, May 29, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. Central.

Please send any questions to Erin Nevius at enevius@ala.org.

Registration fee
ACRL member: $3,200
Non ACRL member: $3,999

Registration capacity
40 participants. Registrations are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Scholarship applications are now closed for 2026
The ACRL Fostering Change scholarship provides an opportunity for academic and research librarians with diverse backgrounds and those working at underrepresented institutions to help spark, lead, or sustain a specific change. The scholarship covers the full registration fee for the cohort (a $3,999 value). Please apply online by 5 p.m. Central on Friday, February 6, 2026. Scholarship applications will be reviewed by the ACRL New Roles and Changing Landscapes Committee and the recipient will be notified in March 2026. Questions should be directed to Erin Nevius at enevius@ala.org.

Questions?

Questions about the Fostering Change for Academic Library Leaders Cohort should be directed to Erin Nevius at enevius@ala.org.