At the Dr. Nancy Grasmick Leadership Institute, the focus is on emotional intelligence

A Towson University center was founded just over two years ago with a commitment to serve the public good and uplift the region by nurturing competence and ethical leadership.

The Dr. Nancy Grasmick Leadership Institute’s inaugural executive director Erin Moran highlighted its external focus, catering to leaders at all levels across the public, nonprofit and business sectors.

“So we offer up to 12 different public workshops. They’re hosted on the Towson University campus, and they’re either one-day workshops or two-day workshops, said Moran, whose background is in studying what a leading workplace culture looks like. “An example of one of our workshops is called Manager to Leader, and so it helps to build the capacity, the influence, the communication skills of that mid-level manager that’s trying to manage their direct reports, their teams, as well as manage up.”

The institute, which runs on donations from funders like St. John Properties and Whiting-Turner, is part of Towson University but not necessarily geared toward students like the Hill-Lopes Scholars Program.

“As leaders, we need to constantly evolve and innovate and and push ourselves to the next level.”— Erin Moran (Courtesy Dr. Nancy Grasmick Leadership Institute)

“We are really, really proud and humbled by the generosity of our donors that have enabled us to provide our public workshops for the $25-a-day fee,” said Moran. “That means that leaders of nonprofit organizations that have really, really slim budgets, they are able to attend our leadership development programs as a result of the generosity of donors.”

The institute not only provides 12 public programs or workshops for leaders but also offers three signature programs: Professional Leadership Program for Women, Next Level Leaders and Spark Brilliance Executive Leadership Program. Classes begin in mid-February. These signature programs are carefully designed to enhance the participant’s experience, aiming to make it more transformative for leaders who choose to engage in them.

Moran highlighted a crucial hallmark of most of the institute’s programs: a connection to emotional intelligence. The institute was founded on the principle that a leader should be morally purposeful in their actions, self-aware and resilient. It aims to embody the example set by namesake Nancy Grasmick, a Johns Hopkins and Towson alumna who shared her excitement for the launch of the institute in this video two years ago.

“I think that as leaders continue to evolve and grow, the importance of emotional intelligence will become more and more powerful as we continue to lean into the coming years, because the ability for a leader to communicate, connect and to lead with compassion really requires a strong skill set connected to emotional intelligence,” Moran said.

Those leaders across industries interested in the institute’s programming can check out sessions and workshops on its website. One session on Feb. 22, the Debunking Leadership Myths Forum, seeks to explore and question the trends that dominate leadership discourse.

Register for the Debunking Leadership Myths Forum