The characteristics of a leadership development challenge for America's community colleges have been well-documented in the literature. A worldwide population aging trend, college leader retirements, and an ineffective system for new leader development have led to predictions of a shortfall in well-trained leaders at all levels of community colleges. These colleges are essential to workforce and economic development in over 1,500 communities and sound leadership of them is essential to the achievement of this mission. The purpose of this study was to add to the greater body of knowledge by describing the planning, developing, delivering, and strengthening elements of three community college-based faculty and staff leadership development programs. Additionally, the study assessed the individual and institutional outcomes of the selected campus-based programs and the relationship of structural, methodological, and topical elements to those results. An extensive review of the literature described the significance of the need to understand the development, delivery, and outcomes of grow-your-own community college leadership development programs. A concurrent mixed-methods approach incorporating interviews, documents, surveys, and program evaluations was used to gather information about the sponsoring institutions and their programs, participants, staff, and sponsors. Emerging themes and patterns of findings were used to address the following research questions within each of the study sites as well as across the three programs: 1. What programmatic elements were included in the planning, developing, delivering, and strengthening phases of each LDI program? 2. What perceived leadership development outcomes did study participants attribute to their participation in the LDI program 3. What perceived organizational outcomes did study participants attribute to the LDI program? 4. How did the LDI programmatic elements relate to perceived leadership development and organizational outcomes The research was organized to examine leadership development programs in the context of a literature-based hybrid analytical framework. The framework was developed to broaden and deepen the understanding of these programs and provide guidance for improved program planning, implementation, and evaluation. The study revealed that many of the elements outlined in the literature were incorporated in the programs examined. Unique and culturally-relevant programmatic innovations led to profound individual leadership development outcomes across each of the programs. Programs displayed institutional nuances while achieving a core group of fundamentally similar institutional outcomes. Programmatic best practices for planning, developing, delivering, and strengthening community college leadership development were also identified and described
