University of Colorado Boulder Chancellor Phillip DiStefano shakes the hand of CU Boulder alum Isaiah Chavous at the 2024 Chancellor’s Annual Summit. (Courtesy of Carson Becker)
The University of Colorado Boulder hosted its annual Chancellor’s Summit at the Denver Art Museum on Feb. 29. The event marked the final annual summit of Chancellor Phillip DiStefano’s 15-year career as CU Boulder’s chancellor.
The event, coming months after TIME magazine ranked CU Boulder as the 64th best college nationally for future leaders in 2023, focused on the future of leadership for recent and upcoming college graduates.
“Our world needs leaders of character who will bring integrity, intellect, empathy and open-mindedness to each and every challenge that we’re facing today,” DiStefano said. “As a society, we need leaders who will take a different approach to questions of democracy, climate, immigration, social policy and so much more.”
The summit featured a panel composed of current CU Boulder students and recent alumnus who shared their thoughts on the future generation of leadership and the problems they are likely to face.
Panelist Isaiah Chavous, a recent CU Boulder alum who currently works for the Los Angeles-based tech startup Jadu AR, shared his vision of the future of leadership, noting that he believes two possible futures are facing the next generation of leaders, which he referred to as utopian and dystopian options.
“More democratization of leaders in different spaces, so meaning that your voice does matter, the seats at the table are equitable, and that there is an increased presence in participation for things that get created,” Chavous said. “That’s the ideal, ‘glass half-full’ mindset.”
Chavous also described an alternate dystopian vision where there are fewer but more powerful leaders. He said it is up to the leaders of tomorrow to come together and take risks to prevent this outcome.
The panelists focused on the importance of diversifying leadership and encouraging people from all walks of life to pursue leadership roles to achieve a more equitable future.
‘I think as a woman, it can be really hard to get involved in leadership and to feel like you belong there,” said Sydney Armstrong, a panelist and current CU Boulder senior studying integrative physiology and hoping to pursue a career in medicine. “… I want to empower people and to empower different populations of people to join leadership. You don’t have to be a white male to be a leader.”
Additionally, the panelists encouraged the audience to consider the qualities that can help shape future leaders.
Kavya Kannan, a panelist and recent CU Boulder alum who currently works as a paralegal for the U.S. District Attorneys for the Eastern District of New York, emphasized the importance of leaders who prioritize their communities and the work they do over the title or prestige of being a leader.
“I would continue the work that I do for the communities that I care about regardless of the title because the communities mean a lot to me,” Kannan said. “So leadership doesn’t always need to be a title. It doesn’t need to be president or CEO. It just needs to be about the community and the people that are around you.”
DiStefano also emphasized the importance of expanding leadership to encourage more voices to participate in vital conversations, a lesson he said he learned in his 50-year career at CU Boulder.
“Fifty years ago, I was listening to voices from students,” DiStefano said. “We had so much unrest on the campus, around the country. That’s when I became convinced of the power of many voices solving problems.”
After the panel, guests were invited to attend a dessert reception and to continue discussing the importance of fostering future leaders. The panelists also stressed the importance of taking the discussion into the real world after the event ended and making tangible strides to become a leader.
“People can sit on a stage all day long, and go out and post on social media all day long and talk about what they will do or how they feel about something,” Chavous said. “But it’s up to us as young people and people at large as a society to craft the future that we want and that’s the beautiful thing for one about living in this country.”
Contact CU Independent News Editor Jessi Sachs at jessica.sachs@colorado.edu.
