The Wisconsin Leadership Institute created the Collaborative Leadership Network (CLN) in 2000 to develop and market educational material about leadership skills and values for secondary and postsecondary students. We define collaborative leadership as a reciprocal process of encouraging and supporting relationships within which people can pursue a variety of shared goals over extended periods of time.
In 2002, the CLN established an annual award program to celebrate achievements in the field of youth leadership education (see below). In 2008, after three years of research and development, the CLN published a curriculum for secondary and postsecondary students entitled Leading Together: Foundations of Collaborative Leadership (see below). Both of these initiatives have promoted and celebrated collaborative leadership.
Winners of the WLI-CLN “Collaborative Leader of the Year” Award
- 2002 – Virginia Duncan Gilmore
- 2003 – Jack Christ
- 2004 – Laurie Frank, Carol Carlin
- 2005 – Tommy Thompson
- 2006 – John Stanley
- 2007 – Carla Hacker
- 2008 – Frank Cumberbatch
- 2009 – Robert Kovar, Ernie St. Germaine
- 2010 – Greg Giles
- 2011 – The Green Lake Correctional Facility
- 2012 – Jeff Smoller, Jack Palmer, Mike Richie for the Rivers as Bridges Program
- 2013 – Tom Thibodeau
- 2014 – Richard Pieper
- 2015 - 2016 – The Near West Side Partnership (Milwaukee)
- 2017-2018 – Diane Hendricks
- 2019 – Sophia Partners
- 2020 – Pause for Covid
Leading Together: Foundations of Collaborative Leadership