Explore followership with us!

We invite you to join us in growing followership, creating a community of mutual support, improving scholarship, and sharing best practices for training and development. We are academics, practitioners, teachers, trainers, employers, students, and HR/OD professionals with a shared goal of co-creating positive impact on business, organizations, projects, movements, and social causes globally.

2025 Conference Co-Chairs

Dr. Ronald Riggio, Ph.D.

Ron is the Henry R. Kravis Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology and former Director of the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College. Dr. Riggio is a social/personality psychologist and leadership scholar with more than two dozen authored or edited books and more than 250 articles/book chapters. He was co-editor (along with Ira Chaleff and Jean Lipman-Blumen) of The Art of Followership.

Sharna Fabiano, MFA

Sharna is an artist, coach, and author of Lead & Follow: The Dance of Inspired Teamwork. She hosts the Lead & Follow Podcast, interviewing members of the Followership community on their latest research, teaching, and community work. An internationally recognized tango artist, Sharna currently teaches movement at California State University Long Beach.

Our 2025 Host

A BIT OF FOLLOWERSHIP HISTORY

Almost 20 years ago, Claremont was the site of the “Rethinking Followership” Kravis-de Roulet Leadership Conference, held on February 24-25, 2006. The proceedings of that conference, which included noted scholars and authors, Robert Kelley, Joseph Rost, Ira Chaleff, Jean Lipman-Blumen, Michaael Maccoby, Bruce Avolio, Robert Lord, Michael Hogg, Michelle Bligh, David Collinson, and Barbara Kellerman, were the foundation for the book, The Art of Followership.

ABOUT OUR HOST

Claremont, the “town of trees, and Ph.D.s” is located 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, right up against the San Gabriel mountains, which rise to an elevation of over 10,000 feet. Its nickname comes from city-sponsored care of its many trees, and the seven Claremont Colleges.

The Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is the host institution. The college was founded in 1946 as Claremont Men’s College, with a name change shortly after admitting women students. The campus resides on the native lands of the Kizh nation, which includes the Seranno and Gabrielio indigenous tribes.

The Kravis Leadership Institute, which recently celebrated its 30thanniversary, is one of the top undergraduate programs for leadership in the nation, and CMC was recently named as one of the inaugural class of colleges and universities recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as a school of “Leadership for Public Purpose” -- recognizing institutions that have committed to campus-wide efforts to advance leadership in pursuit of public goods like justice, equity, diversity, and liberty.

2025 Conference Team

STEERING COMMITTEE

Marc Hurwitz, Steering Co-Chair
Samantha Hurwitz, Steering Co-Chair
Sharna Fabiano, Conference Co-Chair

Ron Riggio, Conference Co-Chair
Marilyn Pierce
, Conference Director

Otto Henfling
Lacey Grey Hunter

Dan Jenkins
Michael Linville
Roddy Millar
Marc Rennaker
Leah Sciabarrasi
David Scott
Langley Sharp
Lori Throupe


PUBLICATIONS

Roddy Millar, Chair
Marc Hurwitz
Maike Kugler

Ron Riggio
Rachael Thompson

MARKETING & OUTREACH

Samantha Hurwitz, Chair
Agro Aboudou
Victoria Brodie
Anna Bruton

Sharna Fabiano

Debra Finlayson
Ines Furume
Chris Fuzie
Anissa Goehring

Roddy Millar
Christian Mon
ö
Musin Nurhadi

Israel Oyedare
Mary Ann Pearson


OPERATIONS

Marilyn Pierce, Chair
Dorine Lawrence-Hughes
Samantha Hurwitz

CORE PROGRAMMING

Dan Jenkins, Chair
Marc Hurwitz, Alt. Chair
Victoria Brodie
Abdurrahim Hocagil
Jeffrey McClellan
Maike Kugler
David Scott

Yulia Tolstikov-Mast
Rachael Thompson


STUDENT PROGRAMMING

Lacey Grey Hunter, Chair
Chris Monö
Mike Linville


EQUITY, DIVERSITY, & INCLUSION

Wendy M. Edmonds, Chair
David Scott,
Alt. Chair
Samantha Hurwitz