In this episode, Dan and Lauren are joined by Dr. Kathy Guthrie, Professor of Higher Education and Leadership at Florida State University, and Dr. Gayle Spencer, Senior Director of the Illinois Leadership Center at the University of Illinois. Together, Guthrie and Spencer co-edited New Directions for Student Leadership Issue #187: General Principles for Advancing Leadership Programs (Fall 2025) alongside the late Rian Satterwhite. This conversation honors both the issue and Rian's foundational contributions to the work.

Kathy and Gayle share how the issue came together and how it works: each of the five core areas of the ILA General Principles — context, conceptual framework, content, learning, and metrics/outcomes/assessment — gets one chapter that deepens the knowledge base and one that shows real application. Listen for why the general principles are a living document worth revisiting early and often, especially as the contexts leadership educators teach and lead in keep shifting. This marks the 19th episode in the TLE–NDSL partnership series; find all NDSL episodes in The Leadership Educator Podcast archive

Resources and works mentioned in this episode include: