About
Every day, we see students like you engaging in the work of developing leadership skills and habits. The work of leadership learning, training, and development happens across classrooms, programs, positions, organizations, and projects.
We have curated an accessible pathway for you to learn, develop, and reflect on your leadership experience at the University of Michigan.
In partnership, the Barger Leadership Institute (LSA) and M-LEAD (Student Life) have built a leadership certificate program that utilizes research from the field of undergraduate leadership studies to create a framework that brings together existing leadership coursework and experiences across campus.
Based on the work by Dr. Barbara Kellerman in her book Professionalizing Leadership, we have oriented our program toward three areas that emphasize leadership learning, training, and development. Through the certificate, you will complete coursework (learning), co-curricular experiences (training), and your choice of engagement in either service, student employment or student organization work (development) with the emphasis on formalizing your undergraduate leadership experience.
Our program is open to any undergraduate student, and our programming and experiences are drawn from multiple colleges, units, and programs across campus to offer a truly interdisciplinary experience at the University of Michigan.
Leadership is a journey; we hope you will join us.
Interested in joining the next cohort?
Application for Cohort 7 (Fall 2027) will open in Winter 2027. More details about the application are available below:
“To be effective, the leadership development process must adopt and achieve three goals: educate leaders, train leaders and develop leaders.”
— Barbara Kellerman, Professionalizing Leadership
You will…
Explore and reflect on your leadership development through coursework, experiences, trainings, and service to others
Document your leadership experiences for applications to grad programs, scholarships, fellowship programs, and internships
Join a community of peers working toward certification, receive one on one coaching, and attend specialized workshops
Receive access to funding opportunities, a certificate of completion and graduation medallion
Learn More…
Advisory Committee Members (2026-2027)
- Eric Arnson, University of Michigan Alum (LSA and Rackham)
- Nadia Bazzy, Director of Student Initiatives and Partnerships, Student Life
- CPT Michele Day, Commanding Officer, Naval ROTC
- Kelly Dunlop, Spiritual, Secular, Religious and Interfaith Engagement Lead, Student Life
- Cristina Eckhoff, Lecturer of Business Administration, Ross School of Business and Lecturer, BLI, LSA
- Stacie J Edington, Director of CoE Honors and Engagement Programs and Adjunct Lecturer in Undergraduate Education, College of Engineering
- Fatema Haque, Academic Program Manager and Adjunct Lecturer, BLI, LSA
- Liz Hoornstra, Student Experience Manager – Intern & Information Services, LSA Opportunity Hub
- Janet Jansen, Health Promotion Specialist and Adjunct Lecturer, LSA
- Ramaswami Mahalingam, Professor of Psychology and Director, Barger Leadership Institute, LSA
- Jeni Olney, Director of Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship, LSA/OptiMize
- Jessica Pasquale, Assistant Director for Scholarly Publishing and Information Services, University of Michigan Law Library
- Alex Puerto, Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Education and Curriculum, LSA
- Catherine Summers, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior, School of Management at UM-Flint
- Joshua Thurman, Associate Director, MCSP and Adjunct Lecturer in Curriculum Support, LSA
- Peter Vasher, Director of Career Services, Ford School of Public Policy
- Andy Wicklund, Assistant Director of Experiential Learning, Office of Action-Based Learning, Ross School of Business