Austin Community College District (ACC) has set an ambitious North Star Goal: increase student completion to 70% by 2030. It’s a goal that touches every part of the College, from the classroom experience to support services and operations.
Within Academic Affairs, that work is taking shape through distributed leadership — an approach that builds on the principles of shared governance, in which faculty and staff collaborate on institutional decision-making.
Distributed leadership recognizes that leadership exists throughout the College, creating opportunities for employees to contribute their expertise, lead initiatives, and advance student success.
For Dr. Gaye Lynn Scott, vice chancellor of Academic Affairs, a key aspect of this approach is the opportunity to expand faculty leadership. “I believe that each of us is a leader,” said Scott. “In a system of distributed leadership, we are expanding faculty opportunities to play leadership roles.”
Scott sees distributed leadership as a natural extension of shared governance, one that strengthens collaboration while creating new opportunities for faculty engagement.
“Distributed leadership is an intentional effort to build on the premise of shared governance by inviting more faculty into the opportunities to lead and move the College forward,” she said. “In the robust system of distributed leadership that we are intentionally building, leadership is shared, collaborative, and collegial.”
That shared approach is becoming increasingly important as ACC moves from planning to action on its Institutional Effectiveness (IE) Report Card. Introduced this spring, the IE Report Card identifies the College’s priorities over the next 12 to 18 months and aligns them with the North Star Goal, the Theory of Change, and other strategic initiatives focused on improving student success and institutional effectiveness.
Moving these priorities forward is an effort to align work already happening across the College and ensure people with different perspectives are helping shape the path ahead. Scott said that throughout her career, working with others has consistently produced the strongest results.
“In my many years of leadership at ACC, I have never done anything well if I didn’t do it with others,” she said. “Seeking and listening to input from multiple perspectives can only make our decision-making more robust, and our decisions will make a difference for our students.”
The Power of Shared Leadership
Faculty Workload Rule Revision Process
Across Academic Affairs, distributed leadership is already taking many forms. One example is the Faculty Workload rule revision process, an effort to update the College’s administrative rule governing faculty workload by clarifying expectations, improving consistency across departments, and creating a more transparent framework for how faculty responsibilities are assigned and supported.
For Alex Watkins, Technical Communications faculty member and associate dean of the Faculty Center for Learning Innovation, participating in the initiative provided the chance to put distributed leadership principles into practice. As co-chair of the workgroup responsible for reviewing proposed updates, alongside Lynda Infante Huerta, faculty librarian and assistant professor, Watkins helped lead a comprehensive listening and outreach tour across the College.
Rather than developing recommendations in isolation, the workgroup sought input from the faculty and staff most impacted by the proposed changes, creating opportunities for meaningful feedback before decisions were made. Crucially, this work grounds our North Star Goal in daily practice. By reducing burnout and establishing operational clarity, faculty gain the flexibility and focus required to innovate in the classroom and champion student completion.
“We ensured that those most affected had a real opportunity to voice their perspectives, helping faculty and administrators understand one another, so that the whole College could move forward with clarity and purpose,” Watkins said. The approach taken by Watkins and the workgroup reflects a central idea behind distributed leadership: stronger decisions come from bringing more voices into the conversation.
Distributed Leadership Implementation Work Group
Another example of collaboration in action is the Distributed Leadership Implementation Work Group (DLIWG, aka “the DillyWig”), co-led by Dr. Elizabeth “Beth” Mosser Knight, associate vice chancellor of Liberal Arts & Sciences, and Dr. Brandon Whatley, associate vice chancellor of Professional Technical Education.
Originally established to support the evolution of department chair and assistant department chair structures within Academic Affairs, the workgroup has expanded its focus to help design a more sustainable leadership model that promotes transparency, consistency, and support across academic departments and divisions.
Knight says the DLIWG has become a strong example of how distributed leadership can bring colleagues together, honor their expertise, and develop meaningful outcomes. “This truly distributed group of leaders has developed incredibly thoughtful outcomes that represent and resonate with those most impacted,” she said.
The workgroup’s evolution has also highlighted an important lesson about shared leadership.
Whatley said meaningful collaboration sometimes takes more time, but ultimately produces stronger, more sustainable outcomes: “In the DLIWG, I have learned that while it may take longer to reach a decision, we are building systems that will ultimately make us more efficient, transparent, and aligned for lasting impact.”
Building the Future Together
As ACC continues advancing its institutional priorities, distributed leadership will be essential to ensuring progress is shaped by many voices rather than a select few. Achieving those goals will require coordination across divisions and the expertise of people throughout the College rather than relying on a single office or leader.
Scott believes that’s what makes distributed leadership so meaningful. “Distributed leadership reflects my belief that we all are, and should be, leaders,” she said.
Moving forward together requires a shared commitment to the work ahead. Through future features, ACC will continue highlighting the leaders and teams putting distributed leadership into practice across the College.
As Whatley puts it, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” For ACC, that means building systems shaped by many voices, strengthening connections across the College, and creating lasting outcomes for students.
Contributed by Academic Affairs Communications