Hi, my name is Cord McLean and I serve as the Associate Director for leadership development in the Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement here at the University of South Florida. As part of my work, I develop a lot of leadership programs and experiences here for students. But in addition to my work in student affairs, I have the privilege of serving as the instructor for this course, Ethics and Power in Leadership. I would like to welcome you to that course. 

I'm originally from Chapel Hill, Tennessee, and I did my undergraduate work at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, a small private liberal arts institution nestled in the heart of Memphis. And so for me, leadership was something that came naturally to me. I was always involved in student organizations in high school, and that followed me to college. And it's just something that I remained engaged with. 

I've done a lot a work around new student experiences, working around multicultural education, and really developing student leadership on campus, which leads me to this course. Thinking about issues of ethics and power in leadership is something that I've had to face in my career, but also as a student leader. And so I get it. I know where we are, and I look forward to engaging in conversation with you about how we translate, again, who we are and what we're doing on a daily basis to our futures as change agents and as leaders in this world. 

So this course is really interactive. A lot of the meat and the takeaways from this course will really come in conversations and dialogue and your engagement with your own reflection, but also with your peers in this class. And so this course differs from others in that the concepts are only presented. It's really what you do with them and what you make of them that makes this course valuable and relevant to the experiences that we have both on campus and in the world. 

So to be successful in this course, the main piece of advice that I would have is for you to really engage. To remain on top of the readings, the discussions, the reflections, and really contribute all that you can to making this experience as powerful as possible. It's really what you put into it is what's going to be what we all take away from it. 

So again, welcome to this course. I look forward to working with you all this semester. You can find me at the Marshall Student Center. Come visit me, come see me. The rest of my contact information, you can find on the syllabus. Again, welcome to the course, and I'm excited to get to know you and work with you through this experience. 

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