Dr. John Dugan - Praxis

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Dr. John P. Dugan is the Executive Director of Youth Leadership Programs at The Aspen Institute. He oversees a portfolio of programs designed to (1) cultivate youth and educator capacities for values-based leadership, (2) improve pathways to degree completion, career readiness, and job placement, and (3) invest in local communities to transfer capital and enrich pipelines of talent across sectors. John co-founded and is the principal investigator of the Multi–Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL), the largest international study of leadership outcomes.  John’s research has generated more than 50 publications and 100 presentations at national and international conferences. His research is cited by more than 4,000 scholars and his work honored for its contribution to knowledge in his field by ACPA: College Educator’s International. John’s most recent book is Leadership Theory: Cultivating Critical Perspectives. He is a proud resident of Chicago, IL.

John Dugan's Books and Research

• Book: Leadership Theory: Cultivating Critical Perspectives 
• Book: Leadership Theory: Facilitator's Guide for Cultivating Critical Perspectives by John P. Dugan, Natasha T. Turman, Amy C. Barnes
• Research: John P. Dugan at Google Scholar

Quotes from this Episode

• “So it’s agency, how to navigate pathways, social generativity, leadership, efficacy, resilience, and social perspective-taking. We really build a robust high potency program around those outcomes.”
• “You can’t build all of these leadership values, knowledge and skills without also building the protective factors so that when someone gets in the arena, they know when to step out, they know when to step forth, they know when to fight, they know when to play. You’ve got to build the protective factors and not just resilience but that internal belief set.”
• On curriculum: “Distilling it down to get to the simplicity on the other side of complexity allows us to then see what is it that actually moves the needle.” 

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Research: Multi–Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL)
• Book: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The poetry of Mary Oliver 
• The poetry of Joy Harjo