Meet the participants, learn what’s to come for ASU’s T4 Leadership Academy

Jonathan Crowell

April 4, 2024

Amidst the rapid advances of technology – such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence – aligning today’s IT leaders with societal needs remains a vital and ongoing endeavor.

Arizona State University (ASU) is leading the charge through the T4 Leadership Academy. Currently training its second cohort, the T4 Academy champions the conviction that digital and cultural evolution paves the way toward more positive, impactful outcomes.

“We have a choice about whether or not we create technology for the benefit of humankind,” shared Christine Whitney Sanchez, chief culture officer at ASU Enterprise Technology and co-creator of the T4 Academy. “Our goal is to help leaders to be well-attuned to the triple bottom line of people, prosperity and the planet.

The T4 Academy is housed within ASU Enterprise Technology and is currently being offered to faculty and staff across the university.

Each cohort meets four times throughout the nine-month program. These multi-day sessions are designed to immerse participants in university’s current practices, while also exposing them to the most disruptive technology trends poised to chart the future. Taught by ASU leaders, each session provides a unique opportunity to network and create community amongst the participants.

“Currently, the technical topics are artificial intelligence, data analytics and cloud and digital transformation,” explained Danielle Batol Steele, director at Enterprise Technology. “This allows the participants to be technically savvy and leverage these technologies we have at our fingertips. The value proposition of T4 is that these skills are taught in the context of organizational and cultural development, transformative leadership, and inclusive excellence.”

Meet three emerging leaders at ASU

Today, there are 14 participants in the second T4 cohort. We caught up with three T4 participants to gain insights in their experience and practice area.

As Steele noted, “the strength of [the T4 Academy] is in discovering where the common threads and intersections lie between the topics, and what each of the participants can add to the conversation and application through their capstone action plans.”

New collaboration expands T4 beyond ASU

T4’s third cohort is scheduled to begin in June. For the first time, the Academy will be going outside the university to collaborate with students joining the program from an outside entity – the Student Freedom Initiative, a nonprofit organization that provides a catalyst for freedom in professional and life choices for students attending Minority Serving Institutions. The first cohort of leaders from Historically Black Colleges and Universities will launch in June 2024. Two of the convenings are slated to be held in Tempe, with one in Philadelphia and another in Washington, D.C.

For more information on the T4 Leadership Academy, visit their website or check out their video.