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The Voinovich Academy for Excellence in Public Service builds leadership capacity to enhance the delivery of public services throughout Appalachian Ohio.

We foster partnerships with elected and appointed officials, local governments and agencies, local development districts, non-profit organizations, and others to build leadership capacity, encourage collaboration, enhance communication, and advocate effectively. 

We rely on input from our partners, as well as other leaders and practitioners in Southeast Ohio, to ensure the topics and issues addressed in our learning opportunities are uniquely relevant to people throughout the region.

Education and Support

We deliver our education and support activities in different forms.

• Cohort-based learning – Our cohort series provide learning opportunities for specific groups of people, either pre-identified groups from specific organizations or individuals from multiple organizations.
• Open enrollment learning activities – These are learning opportunities open to professionals in Southeast Ohio. These include single-session and series learning, as well as special topic summits to address wicked problems. 
• Bobcat Teams – Bobcat Teams offer the right expertise at the right time. Projects may include assistance with development of a new program, expansion of a service or solutions for specific problems an organization is facing.
• Special Projects – In partnership with subject matter experts, the Academy identifies opportunities to create models for expanding and enhancing public service delivery across the region.
• Strengths Coaching – Our Academy Strength Coaches provide 1:1 coaching conversations to all participants in workshops that incorporate the Gallup StrengthsFinder 2.0 personality assessment. These 60-minute opportunities can take place in one, one-hour session or over two 30-minute sessions. 

Appalachian Project Examples

Leading in Appalachia

This is a leadership development series open to public service leaders in Appalachian Ohio. The workshops provide practical information and skills participants can put to use immediately. The topics vary from year to year.

View the Voinovich Academy Training Page for Upcoming Trainings

Appalachian Law Enforcement Initiative

This project developed two virtual reality training modules for law enforcement professionals in southeast Ohio. The Voinovich School partnered with the GRID Lab at the Scripps College of Communication and local law enforcement agencies to identify content, which the GRID Lab turned into scripts and produced virtual reality modules. The virtual reality trainings are being deployed to law enforcement agencies in Southeast Ohio. For more information, contact John Born at bornj@ohio.edu.

Strategic Doing

Strategic Doing teaches people how to form collaborations quickly, move them toward measurable outcomes and make adjustments along the way. In today's world, collaboration is essential to meet the complex challenges we face. Strategic Doing moves away from the standard command and control infrastructure to align and activate a network of people and organizations. It's a new approach to strategy. 

Learn More about Strategic Doing

Contact Us

For information about Academy programs in Appalachia, please contact Jay Johnson at johnsj18@ohio.edu.