Where Ideas Meet Action: How LSI Shapes Purposeful Leadership
LSI Fellows Catherine McCarthy and Michael Walsh are now actively collaborating to help combat health misinformation worldwide.
As a Leadership and Society Initiative (LSI) Fellow in the Activate Pathway, Constance Filling is continuing a lifelong commitment to learning and purposeful leadership. With decades of experience in academic medicine and organizational development, Constance entered the LSI fellowship eager to step outside familiar pathways and explore how community,leadership and the transformative power of the arts intersect in this next chapter of her life.
We recently spoke with Constance about how her goals have evolved since beginning the fellowship in last year’s Design Pathway and how she is now using her time in the Activate Pathway to continue shaping her vision and plans.
In what ways has your understanding of leadership, purpose, or community changed through your LSI experience and the time since?
Constance: LSI significantly deepened my understanding of the powerful impact communities can have on individual participants and organizations. I became especially interested in what I would describe as more transient communities; groups that come together for a period of time and form meaningful connections around shared interests. In my Next Chapter Roadmap, I share my belief that engaging with music benefits individuals, communities, and society. Through my work with organizations like Guarneri Hall, a small chamber music venue in downtown Chicago, I’ve seen how music and the arts can create spaces where people connect, even briefly, in deeply human ways. My next chapter focuses on collaborating with fellow arts advocates to build creative and inclusive communities through music for all.
This work also sharpened my sensitivity to trust and vulnerability among not-for-profit community leaders, especially in challenging times like these. People can be hesitant to open their communities, particularly when approached by an outsider, including myself. It has taught me to be intentional about how I enter those conversations.
My time in the fellowship has deepened my appreciation for the many forms leadership can take. Observing my cohort, the faculty, and the LSI team reinforced the value of collaborative, authentic leadership. If you don’t lead with authenticity, people will see through it in a nanosecond and working together, collaboratively, is ultimately far more powerful.
Looking back to this time last year, what goals or questions were you holding at the start of your fellowship journey, and how have they evolved since then?
Constance: When I first started the fellowship, even before orientation, I knew I wanted to do something intellectually stimulating with a group of people who came from very different backgrounds. I had spent many years in education and academic medicine, and while it’s a wonderful field, it’s also very focused. I was eager to be exposed to new perspectives adjacent to and outside of my professional life focus.
By this point last year, I found myself grappling with uncertainty. I started questioning whether my focus on arts, music, and community was ‘big enough’ or meaningful enough to make an impact. Over time, that question shifted. The key lesson for me has been recognizing that taking steps to make a difference in the world, however small it starts, is what truly matters.
Despite those moments of doubt, my enthusiasm for LSI never waned. It has been an absolutely phenomenal, life-changing experience. I suspect that perspective is shared by everyone who has participated and will continue to be for many more Fellows in the future. The real challenge was figuring out how to pursue what I truly wanted for my next chapter.
As an Activate Fellow, how are you continuing to experiment, learn, and evolve your vision for this chapter of your life and leadership?
Constance: As an Activate Fellow, I’ve been given the space to continue my work, making progress towards achieving social impact. I knew I wouldn’t be able to execute everything in my roadmap by the end of the first year. What mattered was understanding where I was going, who I wanted to talk to, and how I might approach it. Through additional coursework and ongoing collaboration with faculty, I’m working toward piloting community-based arts initiatives and developing credible ways to evaluate their impact. My favorite course of the entire fellowship was the sociology class where the faculty shared his work and deepened my understanding of community engagement. It completely transformed the way I think about how people come together and form connections. I also found a class on creative leadership in the arts to be particularly meaningful, as it gave me new tools for fostering collaboration and building inclusive communities through the arts. There are so many arts advocates and organizations and I am eager to support their ongoing efforts in whatever way I can.
Looking ahead, I remain open to partnering with others to form and support new and intergenerational arts communities to carry the work forward. I also hope to collaborate with professors on research to examine the impact of arts-based community initiatives and helps strengthen the case for their value and reach. New collaborations have emerged through long-standing friendships and unexpected connections at UChicago. You can’t do this work by yourself, you have to invite people in.
It has been equally important for me to learn how to take a step back to allow for growth and learning to occur. Stepping away from full-time work is a process and an opportunity to foster conditions for learning, enjoyment, and engagement with others who share your passions in new ways. With encouragement from LSI coaches and peers, I’ve been rediscovering the importance of engaging in creative practices, like sewing, or singing. Creative hobbies give us joy, free up your mind, and, encourage diverse thinking and experimentation.
At its core, my LSI journey has been about connection. It’s always been about working with passionate people who care and are trying to help. As I continue on the Activate Pathway, I’m guided by a simple but powerful commitment: to build arts communities with care and authenticity, and to help create spaces where people feel welcomed, and valued and where, together, we can make the world a better place for us all.
The University of Chicago Leadership and Society Initiative
The University of Chicago Leadership and Society Initiative (LSI) supports accomplished leaders in successfully transitioning from their longstanding careers toward purposeful next chapters. LSI Fellows immerse themselves in UChicago’s unparalleled environment of big ideas and multigenerational dialogue, gaining frameworks for learning from their past and planning for their futures.
Through LSI’s rigorous and customizable curriculum, Fellows engage with eminent faculty and expert practitioners to explore how their next chapter can be meaningful for them and for society. This Fellowship is a commitment to personal growth, enduring wellness, and dynamic engagement with pressing societal issues.
Contact us to learn more about LSI.
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