Center for Innovative Leadership at Furman University

What’s innovation coaching? It helps leaders and teams move from scattered ideas to focused, actionable solutions. It’s a guided process that gives your team a repeatable framework for identifying the right problems, generating better options and making smarter choices.

Schedule a conversation to learn more: https://tinyurl.com/7mbba587

The best manager development happens inside your organization every day, connected to the real work your teams are doing.

From the first discovery conversation to the final session, the experience is built around your organization's goals, your managers' real challenges, and a structure designed to make learning stick. Sessions are delivered on-site and paced for participants to apply what they learn between modules. Every participant leaves with a leadership action plan they can keep using long after the program ends.

Explore Move to Manager: https://hubs.ly/Q04lCClq0

From concern to action. From the outside looking in, to a seat at the table.

The Community Action & Policy Professional Certificate, facilitated by Dr. Shaniece Criss, gives you the organizing and advocacy skills to influence the decisions shaping your community.

- August 25–December 8, 2026
- Tuesdays, 5:00–6:30 p.m.
- In-Person
- $2,500 investment
- Enroll by August 24, 2026

Designed for nonprofit professionals, public health workers, educators, local board members and emerging leaders ready to move from awareness to impact. Secure your spot before enrollment closes: https://hubs.ly/Q04lq1TG0

The Riley Institute at Furman's 2026 RISE cohort is underway and already making an impact across Greenville. Proud to be part of a university that sends its students into the community to do real work alongside organizations that matter.

The best performers don't just push through pressure. They know how to work with it.

CIL Fellow Dr. Rebecca Heiss has spent her career studying how the human brain and body respond under stress, and how to train people to perform at their best when the stakes are highest.

Ready to bring this work to your organization? Schedule a conversation: https://tinyurl.com/7mbba587

Next week, PDMA Carolinas is showcasing how BMW turned an academic innovation exercise into a working, repeatable process—and what that blueprint could mean for your organization.

- Tuesday, June 16, 2026
- 12:00–1:00 http://p.m.
- Free virtual event

Speakers:
Brooke Rennison, Emerging Technology Manager at BMW Group
Sarah Waylett, Director of Product Experience at the Center for Innovative Leadership

Register now: https://hubs.ly/Q04l3bgb0

Every organization has a plan for what happens next. Not every organization has a plan for who happens next.

Succession planning isn't just an HR exercise. It's one of the most strategic investments a leadership team can make: identifying, developing and preparing the people who will carry the organization forward before the moment of transition arrives.

We build custom programming around succession planning and leadership pipeline development for organizations ready to take that work seriously.

Chat with us to learn more about succession planning for your organization: https://tinyurl.com/7mbba587

Congratulations to all of SCBiz's Top 100 Women!

We were honored to have our own Sarah Waylett on stage sharing her perspective on leading with vision and clarity, closing the gap between intention and impact and what innovative thinking looks like inside organizations ready to grow.

An inspiring celebration of the women reshaping leadership across our great state of South Carolina!

A great listen from our partners at the Institute for the Advancement of Community Health - Furman University. This week's episode of their Community Health Exchange podcast explores how trust and community voice drive lasting change in health equity.

🎙️ New episode of The Community Health Exchange

“If it’s not equal for one of us, it’s not equal for any of us.”

That belief has guided Ma'ta Crawford throughout her career as a Certified Community Health Worker and community advocate.

In this episode, IACH Researcher Jody Teel talks with Ma'ta about her work on the HEAL (Health Equity Action Leadership) Board, a community-led advisory board supported by LiveWell Greenville and the Institute for the Advancement of Community Health. Together, they discuss the importance of building trust, elevating community voices, and creating meaningful change through relationships and collaboration.

Ma'ta reflects on:
• Why the HEAL Board feels like family
• What keeps her motivated to continue this work
• Her favorite memories working alongside community leaders and residents
• The importance of learning from lived experience

Her insights offer a powerful perspective on what it takes to advance health equity and strengthen communities.

🎧 Listen to the episode here:
Apple podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-community-health-exchange/id1884391046

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1vcK0EbE78ad9PbslvyuEW