The Millennium Leadership Initiative or MLI is a premier higher education leadership development program. Originally created by the African-American presidents of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) to help prepare traditionally underrepresented groups for university and college presidencies and chancellorships. The program is one of the most successful higher education programs and has expanded and is now open to all under-represented populations and participants need not be from AASCU member institutions. MLI has partnered with Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU) and the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities to expand its reach to faculty and administrators that are interested in moving to upper administrative positions. Administration The administration of the program is by an Executive Steering Committee of sitting presidents. The faculty in the Summer Institute volunteer their time to support the advancement of underrepresented groups. Mentoring Component The highly selective program differs from other leadership programs largely because of its intensive mentoring program. Proteges meet for one week in the summer and are then paired with a sitting president or chancellor for the following year. The mentor and protege meet weekly by phone, communicate by email, and the protege shadows the mentor on his or her campus. The initiative has been highly successful with sixty proteges appointed as president or chancellor in the programs fifteen years. Dozens of other proteges have moved up to vice president and Provost positions. Career Advancements to Presidents and Chancellors Livingston Alexander, President, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, PA (Class of ’01) Rodolfo Arrival, President, Eastern Washington University, (Class of ’00) Tony Atwater, Former President, Norfolk State University, Va. (Class of ’03) Stanley F. Battle, Former Interim President, Southern Connecticut State University (Class of ’02) Juliette Bell, President, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, (Class of ’07) Kweku K. Bentil, Retired Campus President, Miami Dade College (Class of ’02) Linda L. M. Bennett, President, The University of Southern Indiana (Class of ’05) Betsy V. Boze, President, College of the Bahamas (Class of ‘02) M. Christopher Brown II, President, Alcorn State University, MS (Class of ’02) "T. J. Bryan", Chancellor Emerita, Fayetteville State University, NC (Class of ’00) Nancy Cooley, Open Campus President, Florida State College at Jacksonville (Class of ’05) Don Cozzetto, Former President, University of Northern British Columbia (Class of ’00) Charles Curry, Former Acting President, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania (Class of ’02) Elizabeth Davis-Russell, President, Tubman