About
Launched in the fall of 2013, the NLLI grew out of a partnership between the AFL-CIO, The Worker Institute at Cornell, and top labor educators from Harvard, Rutgers, Berkeley, Oregon, UALE, University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, and the Rockwood Leadership Institute. The vision of the Initiative is to address the strategic challenges facing the labor movement in the 21st century. The Initiative helps top labor leaders acquire and refine the knowledge, skills, and qualities needed to lead in a time when unions and working people are subjected to coordinated and well-funded attacks. The Initiative provides a space for unions, worker justice organizations, and labor educators to learn innovative approaches to the challenges of developing the critical core of leaders our movement needs.
The purpose of the National Labor Leadership Initiative (NLLI) is to create a community of leaders dedicated to their individual and mutual learning and development, the strengthening and transformation of the organizations they lead, and the building of a broad progressive movement that empowers working people in a rapidly changing world.

Program
The NLLI curriculum consists of three 5-day intensive retreats spread out over one year.

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- Director of the National Labor Leadership initiative
Kathleen Mulligan is the Director of Labor Leadership Programs, and Co-Director of the National Labor Leadership Initiative, at Cornell University’s ILR School.
Contact
For more information about the National Labor Leadership Initative, please contact Sherrie Morales at sm92@cornell.edu or 212.340.2827.