Sample Curriculum

Session 1: 
Foundational communication and dialogue skills, introduction to mindfulness, personal leadership habits, structured dialogue, personality styles, conventional and sustainable agriculture, water quality, and environmental justice. 

Session 2: 
Fundamental group facilitation skills, understanding the basics of self-awareness, the “Higher Ground” approach to setting group norms, conflict management styles, Chesapeake Bay water quality, fisheries, and sea level rise in coastal Virginia.

Session 3: 
Key leadership qualities, learning your DiSC personality type, discuss and applying contemplative practices in the workplace, collaborative process design, group consensus, organizational cultural diversity, green economics, the ethics of advocacy lobbying, and Virginia’s Capitol.

Session 4: 
Negotiation process preparation and practice, servant leadership, bringing mindfulness into meetings, natural resources and local economies, sustainable forestry, coal ash. 

Session 5: 
Public involvement, leadership without easy answers, compassionate leadership, rural economic development, the economics of extractive and renewable resources, coal mining reclamation, and the Clinch River regional collaboration.

Session 6: 
The “Open Space” group process, personal leadership goals, mindfulness for leadership, the values and ethics of leaders, plus current topics of the VNRLI class’s choice.