Our History
Leadership Northwest Indiana (LNI) is a tax exempt non-profit organization offering a program of education, information and interaction to leaders from the business community, government entities, non-profit organizations and social services agencies from Northwest Indiana is a seven county region.
LNI has over a thirty-year history dating back to 1982 under the name of Leadership Calumet (LC), inaugurated through a grant to Indiana University Northwest from the Lilly Endowment. The program experienced a brief hiatus in the late 80s, then was resurrected in 1990 under the auspices of NIRPC with Ken and Janet Cypra as program advisors. 769 participants have graduated from the program to date.
LNI is designed to expose a select group of current and emerging leaders to the issues and concerns that affect Northwest Indiana while celebrating its wealth of resources and assets. By fostering a greater understanding of the history and issues confronting Northwest Indiana, it is hoped that each graduate will take this knowledge and return to their community ready to meet these challenges armed with a network of new contacts, growth in personal leadership skills, and an enhanced knowledge of the region as a whole.
Twice each year a carefully selected class of men and women are chosen from varied backgrounds and employment sectors. Traditionally, each class meets once a month for the entire day from September through June with each session focused on a topical issue such as education, transportation, media/communications, social services, healthcare, government, the arts, natural resources, economic development, and cultural diversity. An all day visit to the Indiana State Legislature is also made in February each year.
One class of 20–30 individuals participated in LNI each year for its first 19 classes. In January of 2006 a second class (LNI 20) was added to simultaneously operate along with the fall class which met from September through June. This move created a “winter” class which runs from February through December of the year. In 2007, the board voted to rename each of the classes from a year designation (class of 2004-05, class of 2005-06, etc.) and classify them by their sequential number. Your class is LNI 30. In other words, you are the 30th class in a long line. Not only do we operate two classes, the average size of our current classes is 38 participants.
In 2002, the LNI Board of Directors signed an agreement with the Institute for Innovative Leadership and its Executive Director, Keith Kirkpatrick, to share resources and office space, thus bringing the LNI Program back to its original home, Indiana University Northwest. In 2007 LNI relocated its office from IUN and contracted with the private firm of KPM Group, Inc. and Keith Kirkpatrick to continue as Executive Director overseeing the vision, strategic direction and planning for the organization.
Leadership Northwest Indiana is affiliated with a much larger network of community leadership programs throughout the country. LNI partners with Leadership LaPorte County and other regional leadership efforts.
The board of directors and the Alumni Council continues to participate heavily in the developmental future of the organization. It is the intent of LNI to have a major impact on the leadership capacity of Northwest Indiana through expanding programs and more extensive outreach to LNI alumni.
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