AFIT is the Alliance for Innovation & Transformation. Innovation is inspired by our learning partners, who come from highly successful organizations, mainly from sectors outside of higher education, to help us think outside the box. They teach us the principles and practices they've used to achieve performance excellence and help us see how those models can be applied at our own institutions.
In recent years, learning partners like Microsoft have taught us how to embrace the unprecedented disruption we’re experiencing and adapt to what's coming. Apple helped us learn how to create a culture of innovation, which will be essential in reimagining our organizations for the future. In 2020, our Learning Partner from the U.S. Air Force Academy gave us battle-tested strategies for pushing through our collective decision fatigue to ensure our students continued learning despite the ever-changing guidelines and restrictions that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Transformation is realized by our member CEOs and their teams who come to our annual Summer Institute and translate the concepts they learn into strategic initiatives they implement at their organizations. At Aims Community College, where I serve as president/CEO, we have utilized the learning from AFIT to create the foundational structure of our 5-year strategic and tactical plan, restructured our HR department’s talent development initiatives, created our pandemic support and recovery models, and are broadly creating the innovative future of Aims. The Aims team’s participation at Summer Institute is passionate, enthusiastic, and engaged. Each year, Aims participants bring home many outstanding new ideas to try out, share, and enhance—making Aims stronger than it was before.
But the thing that makes AFIT so special is the tight-knit, supportive community. Since AFIT membership is limited to 50 CEOs, our members bond in a way I haven’t experienced elsewhere. You can feel it in the air from the moment you arrive at our in-person events, and it’s fostered by our monthly virtual CEO Networking Sessions, which provide a safe space for CEOs to have candid conversations about the leadership challenges they’re facing. We truly are an alliance.
The best way to understand the value of AFIT membership is to experience it for yourself. I’d like to invite you to attend our next CEO Networking Session as a guest. Simply fill out this form and let us know you're interested in attending. A member of our team will be in touch to add you to the guest list. We look forward to welcoming you!
To your success,
Leah L. Bornstein, Ph. D.
AFIT President
President/CEO, Aims Community College