Sarah Ramsey worked for United Way of Central Iowa for 11 years before being hired by Drake University in October to lead the Executive Education Center as its first full-time director. While at United Way, Ramsey initially worked under Shannon Cofield to develop a new public policy department to carry out the nonprofit’s legislative policy work. The Executive Education Center, which coincidentally was first led by Cofield, was established in May 2015 following input from Greater Des Moines CEOs wanting a faster pipeline for developing leadership talent. To become more familiar with the program, Ramsey is among the 24 members of a third cohort now taking the Leading Others class, which has attracted participants from Minneapolis, Omaha and even the United Arab Emirates. The center also offers a Talent Development Series each spring. 

What took you away from Iowa, and what brought you back? 
I went to college out of state; I just had a real desire to see different parts of the country. It was graduate school for my husband and myself that took us to the coasts. I had some great opportunities there to work (in Boston) for an education nonprofit, working in teacher leadership systems. Then I went to UCLA to get a master’s in public policy. … We had our first child in Los Angeles, and we knew we wanted to raise her with good Midwestern values. 

How did you connect with United Way of Central Iowa? 
I just started doing a lot of informational interviews (after relocating to Des Moines). Shannon Cofield, then president of United Way, pretty much hired me on the spot. That was at a time when she was transforming United Way to be more of a community impact model, so our volunteers and donors wanted to have more of a legislative presence, especially around early childhood issues. 

What appealed to you about this position? 
I think what appealed to me was that I still feel I am contributing to my community, because that’s such a core of my being. I think what Shannon started here is really creating opportunity to help people create their own leadership platform, really. I feel like this is the next step for me to take the leadership platform that Shannon and Mary (Sellers) helped me create, and help others find their leadership platform to give back in their work and the greater community. 

Tell me about the programs that are underway. 
We’ve got the Building Leaders from the Inside Out (program) that we’re building out, and we’ve got the Leading Others curriculum that we’re implementing now. We’re also developing Leading Organizations — if we were to work with a C-suite, what would that look like? There’s a lot of excitement in the value that Drake could uniquely bring to that. We’ll probably have that worked out by next summer. And the Leading Self piece, for those who don’t lead a team, we hope to get that going in 2018. 

How is the Leading Others program structured? 
It’s an 18-month program; that sounds long, but the upfront coursework is done in the first three months. You get an executive coach who helps you along through the whole 18 months and to push you on your leader plan and your business plan. 

What are you getting out of taking the class yourself? 
I wish I could have had this earlier in my career; I feel like this is what I had been looking for my whole career. It’s like the whole playbook that I needed to be effective. 

How is work coming on the center’s business plan? 
It’s a three-year business plan that I’m doing for the Leading Others course. I think first and foremost, I want to make sure Leading Others is successful; we’ve got 48 slots that we fill each year. So I’m building the relationships that Shannon started to fill those courses. And then it’s really about building out the menu of services we have around leadership and management excellence. That’s pretty exciting. And we’re going to create a marketing campaign and an alumni program. We’re also going to look at taking this into other parts of the world. 

How do you serve in the community? 
I’m a member of Plymouth Church; I’ve been on a couple of boards there. I’ve worked on the benevolence committee, where I’ve helped provide input about organizations to give back to. And I’ve also taught a lot of Sunday school with my husband. And I’ve been a homeroom mom for my kids at the Downtown School.