Faculty and graduate students from Kansas State University’s interdisciplinary leadership communication doctoral program contributed chapters to an edited book Navigating Complexities in Leadership: Moving Towards Critical Hope. This book is part of the Contemporary Perspectives on Leadership Learning Series available from Information Age Publishing.
K-State’s Leadership Communication faculty and students are committed to co-creating knowledge with community and university partners that enrich scholarship, research, and the common good.
Led by the book’s co-editors, Kathy L. Guthrie, Florida State University, and Kerry L. Priest, Kansas State University, this project emerged in response to complexities experienced by leadership educators and practitioners amidst global pandemics. Drawing from their lived experiences, as well as observations within their context and communities, the authors in this volume described and made meaning of complexities as they were living them. 
This book frames leadership learning and development as a process of adaptive action in complex systems. It brings to light patterns of complexity in current times through the lens of educators and practitioners in higher education. It is a guide for those seeking to learn through critical perspectives, and seek more agile, responsive tools for navigating complexity, change, and disruption. The questions, examples, insights, meaning, and recommendations within this volume capture meaning for this moment in time and offer insight for the future.
Themes within this book include: expanding dynamic leadership frames, leadership practice in higher education, higher education as a partner in leadership practice, identity, and global context.
K-State contributors co-authored the following chapters:
Parting the Clouds: Navigating Complexity in Leadership
- Kerry L. Priest, Ph.D., associate professor and director of graduate studies, Staley School of Leadership Studies; director, Leadership Communication doctoral program
- Kathy L. Guthrie, Ph.D., Florida State University, associate professor of higher education; director of the Leadership Learning Research Center, Florida State University
Preparing Leadership Activity at the Intersection of Life and Politics
- Brandon W. Kliewer, Ph.D., associate professor of civic leadership, Staley School of Leadership Studies
Agriculture and Rural Communities: Leadership Learning and Implications for Higher Education
- Susan Metzger, Ph.D., senior executive administrator to the Dean/Director of Kansas State University’s College of Agriculture; associate director for the Kansas Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment
- Russell Plaschka, agribusiness development director, Kansas Department of Agriculture; doctoral candidate in leadership communication
Integrating Leadership Frameworks to Diagnose and Address the Challenge of Health Equity
- Mac T. Benavides, graduate teaching assistant, Staley School of Leadership Studies; doctoral candidate in leadership communication
- Saya Kakim, Kettering Foundation graduate researcher; doctoral candidate in leadership communication
- Jurdene Coleman, director of therapy and recovery services, Pawnee Mental Health Services; doctoral student in leadership communication
Critical Approaches to Gender Equity in Leadership Development and Practice
- R.J. Youngblood, assistant director of the Academic Achievement Center; doctoral candidate in leadership communication
- Tess Hobson, Ph.D., post-doctoral fellow, Staley School of Leadership Studies
- Roberta Maldonado Franzen, Ph.D., post-doctoral fellow, Staley School of Leadership Studies; Third Floor Research, Kansas Leadership Center
Grassroots Movements in Senegal to Grow Critical Hope: Lessons for Higher Education
- Trisha Gott, Ed.D., assistant professor and associate director at the Staley School of Leadership Studies
- Mary Tolar, Ed.D., director of the Staley School of Leadership Studies
- Salif Kanoute, social entrepreneur; founder of DECLIC, an organization based in the Casamance region of Senegal
- Seydi Ndiaye, co-founder of AfricTivistes; co-founder and vice president of consortium Jeunesse Senegal (Youth Consortium Senegal)
Seeing the Sunlight: Critical Hope for the Future
- Kathy L. Guthrie, Ph.D., associate professor of higher education; director of the Leadership Learning Research Center, Florida State University
- Kerry L. Priest, Ph.D., associate professor and director of graduate studies, Staley School of Leadership Studies; director, Leadership Communication doctoral program
The book is available for purchase here. To learn more about the leadership communication doctoral program, visit www.k-state.edu/lead-comm.
