2023 CrossState Leadership School
215 Innovation Blvd, State College, PA 16803
A Special Thanks to Our Sponsors
Event Information
A must-attend event for anyone looking to improve their leadership skills, CrossState Leadership School returns to State College, PA on August 13-17. We are proud to partner with professors from the esteemed Penn State University Smeal College of Business, who will share their expertise throughout the week. Depending on your skillset, CrossState offers two tracks to choose from – Foundations of Leadership and Advanced Leadership. Leadership School is a valuable and affordable steppingstone in your professional development journey.
CrossState Leadership School is a legacy program that’s been offered to our members since 1955. It has seen thousands of graduates over the past 60 years, with many of our members moving on to become leaders in their credit unions. Founded in 1953 and boasting over 90,000 graduates since its inception, the Penn State Smeal College of Business is the perfect partner to help CrossState elevate your professional development to the next level.
Registration is now closed for this event.
Reserve Your Hotel Room
Rooms are available at the Penn Stater Hotel for a special rate of $132/night. Lodging must be booked separately from your event registration by using the link below. These rates are only guaranteed until July 14, 2023. After this date, the rooms are released and rates may change.
Enter the code CROS23A when booking your room on the Penn Stater Hotel Website.
Event Pricing
Members Under $50 million in assets – $679
Members Over $50 million in assets – $875
Members may register under the Foundations Track or Advanced Track, depending on their skillset. Please read the additional information below to select the track that best fits your needs.
About the Tracks & Sessions
Two Leadership Tracks
Foundations of Leadership
- Recommended for members new to leadership roles or who would like to gain leadership skills to help advance their careers.
- Students will have their own unique curriculum for breakout sessions, but will come together during large general sessions throughout the week.
- Examples of topics covered include DiSC assessment and review, persuasion and solving conflict, giving and receiving feedback, and others.
Advanced Leadership
- Recommended for members who are already in leadership positions or will be moving into a leadership role soon.
- Students in this track will have their own unique curriculum for breakout sessions, but will come together during large general sessions throughout the week. Examples of topics covered in this track include leading vs managing, coaching, and generations in the workplace, and others.
- Members attending for the first time can start in this track and are not required to begin in the Foundations Track.
General Sessions: Throughout the week in State College, students will come together for large general sessions. These sessions include speakers focusing on current hot topics, a leadership panel composed of CU executives, a presentation from the CU Ambassador Contest winner, and group team building exercises.
Experiential Learning at Shaver's Creek
The most popular and unique aspect of Leadership School is easily our day at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center. Only 30 minutes away from State College, Shaver’s Creek is operated by Penn State University. CrossState works with the Shaver’s Creek Team Development Center to offer customized team-building programs that enable groups to forge a stronger team dynamic. Team-building activities focus on communication skills, cooperation skills, trust, problem-solving skills, and relationship building.
This educational and fun experience gives students a break from the traditional classroom style of instruction while still providing valuable lessons to bring back to the workplace.
Dr. Alicia Grandey
Alicia Grandey is a Professor of the industrial-organizational psychology program at Penn State University. Over the past 25 years, she has published over 60 research articles and a book on research related to work stress and diversity, which has been cited in Fast Company, the New Yorker, and NPR. She is globally known as an expert in emotional labor, the managing of emotions when performing the work role, focusing on “people-work” roles in customer service and health care.
Roy Long
Roy is the service manager for the Digital Learning Cooperative and the Polaris project, the public facing web platform in use by all Penn State Commonwealth campuses, Penn State at the Navy Yard, and Office of the Vice President for Commonwealth Campuses. His career delivering technology spans more than twenty years, with service to K12 as well as higher education and the energy industry.
Roy’s research focused on navigating large-scale change initiatives for government, universities, and corporations, and he has led successful campaigns for the University of California, UC Irvine Medical Center, Montgomery College, the State of Connecticut, Vanguard, and the National Institute of Health.
Dr. Margaret Luciano
Dr. Margaret Luciano is an Associate Professor of Management and Organization in the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University. She holds a Ph.D. in management from the University of Connecticut, as well as a Master’s degree (Business) and a Bachelor’s degree (Psychology) from Clark University. Margaret’s research focuses on the dynamics and effectiveness of leaders, teams, and complex systems. Her research has been funded by both corporate and government grants. She has published numerous articles in academic and practitioner journals. Notably, her research on understanding and enhancing the quality of patient handoffs has won competitive international awards. With extensive experience in leadership development, team coaching, and change implementation, Margaret has developed custom programs for hospitals across the United States as well as organizations in different industries across the world.
Dr. Susan Simkins
Susan Simkins is a Professor in the industrial-organizational psychology program at Penn State University. Over the past 30 years, she has become a renowned expert on teamwork and how teams “get on the same page” with a shared purpose, especially when they differ on personality, demographics, and status. Her team research has been funded by the military and the National Science Foundation. She has conducted studies in restaurants, business, and health care settings.
Dr. Al Vicere
Dr. Albert A. Vicere is Executive Education Professor of Strategic Leadership at the Smeal College of Business, The Pennsylvania State University. Recipient of numerous MBA teaching awards for his courses on strategic leadership, he has served in various leadership roles for the Smeal College including Associate Dean for Executive Education, Director of the Institute for the Study of Organizational Effectiveness and Faculty Director of the Executive MBA Program.
In addition to his duties at Penn State, he is President of Vicere Associates Inc., a consulting firm that has worked with major organizations in over 40 countries to help them address issues in strategy and leadership development. The firm’s clients have included 3M, AMD, American Express, the American Red Cross, Anheuser-Busch, ARAMARK, AT&T, BASF AG, Boeing, BP, British Airways, Cisco, Continental AG, Daimler-Benz, Dow Chemical, Eastman Kodak, Ecolab, LM Ericsson, Excelon, First Data, Four Seasons, Hallmark, Henkel KGaA, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Kraft, The Limited, McDonald’s, Merck, Motorola, National Australia Group, National Health Service (UK), Petron (Philippines), PwC, Rockwell Automation, Samsung, Saudi Aramco, Schering-Plough, Scudder Kemper Investments, Unisys, UNIVAR, U.S. Steel, and Western Union
Mary Kay Williams
Mary Kay T. Williams is a Senior Instructor for Penn State Corporate Learning and is the founder and consulting principal of MindShift Consulting Inc. Mary Kay is part of a team of instructors within Corporate Learning that believe Penn State customers can expect exceptional quality, service, and commitment. Corporate Learning’s resources and capabilities, including strategic and leadership planning assistance; business, technical, and environmental assessments, training; credentialing; learning tools and techniques that can be applied to refresh skills and enhance knowledge retention. Mary Kay is a dynamic facilitator and loves her craft and it shows. She has helped many organizations both in the private and public sectors to achieve new levels of effectiveness and efficiency.