The Staley School of Leadership

Mission: Developing bold, curious, and connected learners to address our world’s most complex challenges.
Vision: Our diverse and changing world thrives because people and communities are prepared to learn, serve, and lead change.

The Staley School provides a specialized educational environment that enhances the life experiences and strong undergraduate education that play a critical role in leadership development. The three interrelated avenues experienced within the Staley School of Leadership Studies are:

1. The administration of an interdisciplinary minor in leadership studies.
2. The facilitation of a learning community of leadership studies in which core values are explored and modeled.
3. Programming efforts which emphasize each aspect of our mission.

Value of a Learning Community

The Staley School of Leadership at K-State is a values-centered learning community. Though the cornerstone of this community is its academic component, being a leadership studies student entails more than simply attending classes. An effective learning community models the values that it teaches - collaboration, respect for all, integrity, and service of a common purpose. Within this environment, students have the opportunity to interact with and learn from their peers as well as faculty.

Core Values of Leadership Studies

• Service for the common good is the goal of leadership.
• Leadership is needed at the personal, organizational, community, state, national, and global levels.
• Leadership is a process and is not defined simply by position or authority.
• Leadership studies is an academic discipline, which can be taught and learned.
• Leadership studies is interdisciplinary in nature and unites theory and practice.
• Leadership studies will benefit a broad spectrum of undergraduate students.
• Collaboration is the primary method of teaching and developing leadership.
• Successful leaders are committed to and have the ability to engage in leadership with those of other backgrounds and cultures.

The Staley School of Leadership envisions a diverse and changing world that thrives because people and communities are prepared to learn, serve, and lead change.

Our Next-Gen K-State strategic plan outlines our commitment to deliver a powerful, distinctive experience that prepares K-State learners and partners to solve the world’s most pressing challenges - through study and practice, in person and on-line, in Kansas and across the globe.

2024-2030 Strategic Plan (PDF)

Mary Lynn Staley graduated from Kansas State University in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. While at K-State, Staley was a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority, the Chimes honorary society and was involved in student government. Since her time at Kansas State, she has been a teacher and held numerous leadership positions in philanthropic organizations.

Warren Staley graduated from Kansas State University in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. While at Kansas State, he served as the president of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, president of the Interfraternity Council, and was a member of the Blue Key Honor Society. After K-State, Staley attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he received his master’s degree in business administration in 1967. Staley began his career with Cargill in 1969. In 1998, Staley became the president and chief operating officer; in 1999 he was named CEO, and in 2000 was named chairman of the board. In 2007, nearly 40 years after starting his career with Cargill, Staley retired from the company.

Prior to beginning his career with Cargill in 1969, Warren and Mary Lynn accepted a Ford Foundation fellowship working with the poor in Cali, Colombia. The couple credits this experience as a major influence for their dedicated work on issues of education and opportunity for the globally dispossessed. The couple has mutually embraced the mission of Opportunity International, a nonprofit microfinance organization helping the working poor work their way out of poverty; Mary Lynn served as Chair of the Board of Governors. Warren is currently serving as a member of the global board of Opportunity International and on the Music Academy of the West board of directors as Vice President. In addition to Opportunity International, the Staleys spend time working with Habitat for Humanity. The Staleys participate in Habitat for Humanity Jimmy Carter Work Projects in Thailand, Durban, South Africa, and Veracruz, Mexico. Mary Lynn is the Vice President on the Habitat for Humanity International board.

Warren, since he retired from Cargill, has co-founded O'Brien Staley Partners (OSP) financial business and both Mary Lynn and Warren are repurposing homes and schools in Detroit in partnership with Banyan Investments and establishing a high school in Mamponteng, Ghana, Africa.

Mary Lynn and Warren were major donors to the construction of the Leadership Studies Building at their alma mater, KSU, completed in 2010. The Leadership Studies Building houses the Staley School of Leadership Studies whose mission statement and programs reflect the couple’s long held values. The teaching of ethics exists throughout the Staley School’s classes and programs and is specifically developed through The Cargill Center for Ethical Leadership (Warren retired as Cargill’s CEO in 2007), and the international service teams program encompasses the Staley School’s mission statement while serving the “globally dispossessed.” In 2009, Kansas State University awarded the Staleys the Medal of Excellence. The Staleys have received numerous awards for their service, and most recently they have received the Al Whittaker Founder’s Award for their service to Opportunity International, and the NCEA Elizabeth Ann Seton Award, the highest honor conferred by Catholic educators.

The couple has three children and seven grandchildren.

The commitment to developing future leaders at Kansas State University was a vision of then Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement and Dean of Students Pat Bosco who believed that leadership can be learned. Currently Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students, Bosco pondered what prepares student leaders at Kansas State University to assume leadership roles at the collegiate level. In 1988, Vice President Bosco conducted a study to identify the high school background of the leaders of the Kansas State University student body. In addition to having a higher than average ACT score, Vice President Bosco discovered that collegiate leaders began practicing leadership in high school. Vice President Bosco working with Dr. Susan M. Scott, then Associate Dean of Students, initiated a leadership scholarship program that identified high school leaders who demonstrated an interest in leadership. 136 students received leadership scholarships that first year.

In the spring of 1996, the Institutional Advancement Staff (Drs. Susan M. Scott and Pat Bosco) approached the Department of Educational Leadership faculty (Drs. Robert Shoop and David Thompson) in regard to a joint sponsorship of an interdisciplinary minor in Leadership Studies. In addition to academic classes, nonacademic programming was also proposed. Leadership classes had been taught at Kansas State University in various formats since the mid - 1980's. The minor was planned as a consolidation and extension of these previous efforts with the intention of offering Kansas State University students the opportunity to learn about and apply leadership theories and skills across academic disciplines. The Department of Educational Administration, in the College of Education, under the leadership of Dr. David Thompson made a commitment to prepare leaders rather than simply train school administrators. This shift in commitment was symbolized when the department changed its name to the Department of Educational Administration and Leadership then to the Department of Educational Leadership. Dr. Robert Shoop, a faculty member in this department began to develop courses in leadership.

The initial proposal for the interdisciplinary minor was written in the summer of 1996 by Drs. Scott and Shoop. The proposal was given to Provost James Coffman and Vice President Robert Krause and an interdisciplinary task force was established. The task force was chaired by Scott and Shoop. On the 3^rd of March 1997, the Kansas Board of Regents approved an 18 - hour interdisciplinary minor in Leadership Studies.

The staff in the spring of 1997 consisted of 1.5 faculty, with an operating budget of less than $5,000. Dr. Susan M. Scott served as Director, beginning in 1996, and Dr. Robert Shoop Professor and Senior Scholar in the same year. The first class (Introduction to Leadership Concepts) was taught to the general student body in the spring of 1997 and the first Practicum in Leadership Studies was also taught.

In the spring of 1998, Introduction to Leadership Concepts was approved for general education credit and the first Leadership for the 21^st Century Senior Seminar class was taught (later named Senior Seminar in Leadership Studies). Service learning was integrated into Leadership Studies through a grant from K-State’s Community Service Program. In order to ensure that the program was responsive to the needs of the students, a Leadership Studies Student Advisory board was elected. This board was later named the Leadership Studies and Programs Student Ambassadors. In the spring of 1998, thirteen students constituted the first Leadership Studies graduating class.

On the 11^th of January 2010, the faculty/staff of the Staley School of Leadership Studies moved into the new Leadership Studies Building! It is a joyous day!

We appreciate the vision and leadership it took to create such a program at Kansas State University.