Front Row: Emily McGinty, Dr. Robert McManus, Alison Matas
Back Row: Scott Burnham, Diana Hackenburg (team leader), Joshua Maxwell

McDonough Contributing to Harvard’s
2009 America’s Best Leaders Project

The McDonough Center is assisting with the 2009 America’s Best Leaders (ABL) Project – a collaboration between U.S. News & World Report and the Center for Public Leadership (CPL) at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Every year, the ABL honorees are selected by a committee of government, community and private sector leaders convened by CPL. McDonough is serving as one of three research teams ( Harvard University and the University of Oklahoma being the other two). The teams are helping identify potential nominees, researching ABL nominees and composing descriptive profiles for the 2009 ABL Selection Committee.

Dr. Robert McManus, assistant professor of leadership studies and communication, is serving as faculty adviser for the Marietta College research team. The team (pictured above) includes Diana Hackenburg ’09 (team leader), Scott Burnham ’11, Alison Matas ’11, Joshua Maxwell ’11, and Emily McGinty ’10. Dr. Gama Perruci, dean of the McDonough Center, is serving as a member of the 2009 ABL Selection Committee, which is co-chaired by David Gergen, CPL director and former adviser to several presidents, and Warren Bennis, one of the pioneers of the field of leadership studies and distinguished professor of business administration from the University of Southern California.

Last year, five other McDonough Scholars worked with the 2008 ABL selection process. The names and profiles of the 2008 honorees were announced in a special December 2008 issue of U.S. News & World Report (see the links below).

America's Best Leaders 2008

How They Were Picked