ILA-Latin America

ILA's 2003 annual conference in Guadalajara, Mexico spurred the growth of ILA-Latin America.  This community has held subsequent events in Mexico and during the 2004 and 2005 ILA conferences.  With big plans for 2006 and 2007, ILA-Latin America welcomes your involvement and participation.  Please contact ILA Board Member Gama Perruci for more information: perrucig@marietta.edu
   

ILA-Latin America Meets in Amsterdam &
Lays Plans for the Future

L-R, Amparo Hoffman, Peter Strobosch, Anne Murphy, Almarie Munley, Michiel Baud, Gama Perruci, and Pauline Swart.

In the past two years, several ILA members who share an interest in Latin America have been meeting annually to network and build an agenda for activities. This network has been taking the shape of a "chapter" within ILA. Educators, practitioners, and students from Latin America have used this chapter to cross geographical boundaries while exploring new aspects of leadership in an increasingly interdependent global environment.

Each event organized by ILA-Latin America reinforces the perspective that deeper interaction among ILA members generates new ideas and exciting possibilities. In 2005, the highlight of the ILA-Latin America activities was the network meeting held at CEDLA (The inter-university Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on Nov. 2, 2005. This network meeting took place in conjunction with the ILA Annual Conference. Aside from providing an opportunity for ILA members to meet one another, the meeting also dealt with substantive issues. Dr. Michiel Baud, CEDLA Director and Professor of Latin American Studies at the University of Amsterdam, provided his own insights about the leadership challenges facing Latin American democracies in the new century. Following the meeting, the chapter held an informal reception hosted by CEDLA and the McDonough Leadership Center (Marietta College, Ohio).

Anne Murphy (University of Lancaster, UK) makes a point as CEDLA Director Michiel Baud, Pauline Swart (University of Amsterdam) and Peter Strobosch (President of Alaya, Arnhem, The Netherlands) listen.

ILA's annual conferences provide an excellent venue for building different themes for the Latin American chapter. For the 2006 conference, the group is inviting presidents from universities in Latin America to meet in Chicago to engage in a dialogue about strategies to develop new Latin American leaders. By inviting prominent educators from Latin America to an ILA-Latin America sponsored event, we are hopeful that more ILA members who are from Latin America will become involved in this network. We also are seeking to go beyond ILA conferences as a meeting venue. In the spring of 2007, Odir Pereira, president of the Leadership Institute of Brazil (Instituto de Lideranca do Brasil, ILB), has accepted the challenge to organize a brief ILA-Latin America forum in Sao Paulo. This forum in a Latin American country will allow us to reach new leaders who in turn may join ILA.

Communities: ILA-Latin America