Leadership Programs

The goal of Leadership Academy is to bring together a diverse group of grower leaders to improve their ability to serve their state organization, enhance their communication skills, and instill in them the importance of advocacy—all to advance the priorities of our nation's corn growers and build the next generation of industry leaders.   The program focuses on various aspects of leadership training and key agricultural issues in a world with ever-changing consumer and environmental concerns. Growers will gain a keener insight into association management and how different leadership styles can come together in building an efficient organization. Media training and effective advocacy communications play a key role in this program as our grower leaders take a more active role as spokespersons for their state and national corn organizations.   Launched in 2019, Leadership Academy has become NCGA's primary leadership development tool, replacing and consolidating past leadership...

NCGA’s Women and Mentors Program focuses on creating a diverse network of individuals who wish to empower women in agriculture. The network is purposely and intentionally built by bringing women together at the Women and Mentors Retreat, where mentors and mentees will be matched to build a strong bond throughout the year (and beyond!). This group of women is already filled with insight and strong connections, and we look forward to building on this strong network for the future!   Women who would like to grow their leadership skills and get more involved in associations at the state and national level are encouraged to apply as mentees. On the flip side, anyone who would like to help women achieve their leadership goals is encouraged to apply to be a mentor. This program is open to staff in addition to growers. Staff will be grouped into cohorts of mentors and mentees and will focus on their careers, rather than association leadership.   This year, participants will hear from...

P U R P O S E : The ACE Series creates prepared, informed, and effective advocates to carry the messages of corn growers' public policy priorities to elected officials across the nation. Following program completion, participants will be prepared and empowered to engage in the political process.   A U D I E N C E : This program is geared toward state associations' grower leaders (board members, other committee members, young/emerging leaders). It is designed to help them take their advocacy efforts to the next level. In order to ensure interaction and collaboration among participants, the class size is kept to 35 grower leaders.   S T R U C T U R E : This virtual program will be conducted in a series of three modules. Each module will be held live on a series of Friday mornings from 9:00 AM EST - 11:00 AM EST. In addition to the three live modules, program participants will receive communications throughout the year and additional opportunities to continue to build their...

Syngenta’s Leadership At Its Best program (LAIB), has trained over 600 grower leaders since 1986. Preparing these corn association and checkoff leaders to deliver the high level of service necessary for corn associations to achieve their goals and for the corn sector to lead American agriculture is vital for our association.   In 2019, Syngenta redesigned LAIB to be a cross-commodity leadership program bringing together a diverse group of 50 farmers across all the commodity programs they support. The program is designed to provide state corn grower leaders with advanced leadership training and the necessary communication skills to make a difference in American agriculture while advancing into leadership positions on a national level.   “I went through an earlier LAIB class but having different Ag groups involved together was excellent.  Great way to learn and network with fellow agricultural groups at one time.  The media training and Capitol Hill visits were excellent.” - Dan...