About the Center

Launched in 2016, Mercer University’s Center for Leadership, Ethics, and Service is a multidisciplinary effort to develop global leaders required for the demands, challenges, and opportunities of the 21st century. The Center was established under the joint vision of President William Underwood, Dr. Penny Elkins, and Lt. Gen. Mick Kicklighter, a former Mercer trustee and 1955 graduate of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, “to support the leadership development of Mercer students across all locations and programs, building on a strong heritage of equipping leaders. With an alumni base including the current chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, a former attorney general of the United States, 12 governors – including Georgia’s current governor, two United States senators, and many more Mercerians leading in corporate boardrooms, as entrepreneurs, in higher education, as principals, teachers, and superintendents in our public and private schools, and numerous other walks of life, Mercer has been involved in the support and development of leadership since its founding,” said Underwood in 2016.

In a time when strong ethical leaders are needed now more than ever, the Center’s work focuses on coordinating initiatives across the University, building synergies where appropriate, maintaining the integrity of the programs already in existence, and developing new ideas to support leadership development across all programs and locations so that leadership can continue to be strengthened, highlighted, and assessed as an integral part of the Mercer Experience.

The Center operates in an advisory and support capacity wherever needed.  The Center seeks to enrich and reinforce the ongoing leadership development components at Mercer, including but not limited to, all leadership programs and initiatives in each of the academic and student affairs units, the National Society on Leadership and Success (NSLS), Mercer on Mission, Leadership MU, and volunteer initiatives fostering service and involvement.

The Center structure is comprised of a planning and implementation team, an internal advisory board with representatives from each college/school, and an external advisory board made up of some members of Mercer’s Board of Trustees, business leaders, and community members.