Denhardt takes inaugural turn as Coor Chair

The first Lattie and Elva Coor Presidential Chair has been awarded to School of Public Affairs Director Robert B. Denhardt, providing a $1 million endowment to develop scholarship and education in leadership and ethics across ASU.

The Coor Chair will be used to help situate ASU among the top universities in the nation with respect to the study and practice of leadership, especially public leadership.

“Being named the Lattie and Elva Coor Chair is a particular honor for me, since the Coors are among the most significant public leaders in the state of Arizona and their model and example is one for all to emulate,” Denhardt says.

Denhardt is Regents’ Professor and Lincoln Professor of Leadership and Ethics at ASU. The School of Public Affairs is in the College of Public Programs at the Downtown Phoenix campus.

The Coor Chair was established by friends and supporters of the Coors. Former ASU president Lattie Coor is president emeritus and professor in the School of Public Affairs. He also is chairman and chief executive officer of the Center for the Future of Arizona. Elva Coor helped in founding the President’s Community Enrichment Program, a highly successful university-community outreach program.

Through the Coor Chair, their example will be used to train and inspire a new generation of leaders in businesses, governments and communities. It will help the university develop research and educational programs that enable people to understand the complex nature of leadership.

Denhardt will use the proceeds to coordinate the efforts of ASU’s various leadership development activities, capitalizing on the university’s combined strengths and resources to develop a comprehensive and integrated leadership program.

“The fundamental goal of this work is to promote ethnical behavior and sound leadership in public, private and nonprofit organizations under conditions of change, complexity and uncertainty, all of which require heightened sensitivity to moral and ethical concerns,” says Debra

Friedman, university vice president of the Downtown Phoenix campus and dean of the College of Public Programs.

Corey Schubert, corey.schubert@asu.edu
(602) 496-0406
College of Public Programs