Applications Open!
Applications for the 2025-2026 cohort of New Leaders Fellows are due June 9.
The New Leaders Fellowship is a signature program of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC), designed to empower and equip emerging leaders from across the science center and museum field. Since 2000, ASTC’s New Leaders Fellowship and its predecessor program, the Diversity Leadership and Development Fellowship, have collectively nurtured nearly 250 museum professionals to advance their careers and exercise transformative leadership—both in their own institutions and within the broader science engagement field.
ASTC’s New Leaders Fellowship is driven by the following vision:
- Executive leadership across the science center and museum field reflects broadly the demographics, cultures, and lived experiences of the increasingly diverse audiences and publics they serve.
- Science centers and museums have dynamic and sustainable leadership models that continuously anticipate, directly drive, and respond to transformative change.
The nine-month program provides professional development, a peer network, and opportunities to develop leadership skills that leverage the unique perspectives and experiences the Fellows bring to their work. Our curriculum supports future leaders who embody inclusive and visionary leadership and are skilled in managing the people and processes to make those visions happen.
The fellowship benefits the participants, ASTC-member institutions, and the field at large by:
- Offering skill-based leadership development opportunities to science center and museum professionals who aim to move into more senior leadership roles.
- Providing opportunities for ongoing learning and dialogue between participants and accomplished leaders.
- Providing ASTC-member institutions with an opportunity to strengthen and diversify their leadership pipeline, contributing to future innovation and growth.
- Supporting an ever-expanding network of highly skilled leaders in the field.
Contact
For questions about the New Leaders Fellowship, please email the Professional Learning & Impact Programs team at programs@astc.org.
Program Facilitators
Melissa Ballard, Director of Programs
Amanda Fisher, Associate Director of Programs