A new Scholar in Residence at the Randall L. Tobias Center for Leadership Excellence will provide the latest leadership insights to Tobias Fellows, the Tobias Leadership Center community, and organizations’ leaders.
Charlotte Westerhaus-Renfrow, an IU Kelley School of Business clinical associate professor of business law and management, will serve as the second Scholar in Residence, bridging the gap between leadership knowledge and practice. She holds several appointments in the Kelley School of Business Indianapolis, including Undergraduate Program faculty chair and Kelley Dean’s Fellow, as well as leadership roles on the IU Indianapolis campus.
“Charlotte’s vast experience and leadership brings a diverse expertise to the Tobias Leadership Center. She’s an attorney, an Air Force veteran, former VP at the NCAA, and the first African American woman to make the Indiana University Maurer School of Law journal,” said Julie Manning Magid, vice dean of Kelley Indianapolis and executive and academic director of the Tobias Leadership Center.
Westerhaus-Renfrow’s primary areas of academic interest involve preparing leaders for our globalizing world by increasing leadership capacity, team capability, and intercultural competency. She served as an Indiana University Bicentennial Professor for three years – a title earned by only 24 other faculty members across the university. Westerhaus-Renfrow is an award-winning professor, receiving numerous teaching awards including the Charles R. Bantz Chancellor’s Community Scholar Award, the MBA Innovative Teaching Excellence Award, and the Indiana University Bicentennial Medal for the extraordinary service and impact she has had at IU and in the community.
Westerhaus-Renfrow was also named to IU’s Alliance of Distinguished and Titled Professors, an organization that promotes excellence at the university. She received her J.D. from the IU Maurer School of Law and is a regular contributor of business columns, including the Indianapolis Business Journal.
Westerhaus-Renfrow is excited to help grow and contribute to the Tobias Leadership Center. “I look forward to being a subject matter expert and providing valuable content that helps 21st century leaders make informed decisions, solve problems, and stay up to date with the latest leadership trends.”
An Indiana University-wide center headquartered on the Indianapolis campus, the Tobias Leadership Center works to engage diverse leaders to meet the challenges of impact, innovation, integrity, and inclusion. The Scholar in Residence position complements the center’s Executive in Residence Program, which develops connections with leaders to expand the impact of the center and Tobias Fellows Program while providing mentoring, business insights, and hands-on support for leadership programs.
“The Executive in Residence connects us to the expertise of organizations’ leaders while the Scholar in Residence explains how leadership theories have evolved and where research can take us. Having both programs at the Tobias Leadership Center is integral to building more connections that can grow the leadership capacity of organizations and improve the outcomes for those organizations and the communities they impact,” Magid said.
For more information on the Tobias Leadership Center, click here.
About the Randall L. Tobias Center for Leadership Excellence
The Tobias Leadership Center prepares leaders for 21st century challenges. By bridging the gap between knowledge and practice, we empower leaders to develop people, organizations, and communities who can solve complex problems. We value integrity, impact, inclusion, and innovation, and our focus on leadership across all sectors—corporate, public service, education, and nonprofit—makes us unique among leadership programs nationwide.
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