Driving along Emmet Street/Route 29 in Charlottesville, you may have noticed a stately white building up on a hill across the street from the Villa Diner, enclosed by a wrought iron fence. Ever wonder what goes on there? 

The Federal Executive Institute (FEI) is part of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Established in 1968, FEI hosts senior executives from across the federal government, including the Department of Defense, for immersive programs on leadership. Charlottesville was chosen as an ideal location for FEI because of its close proximity to Washington, D.C., and as the home of the University of Virginia, a key educational partner for its mission.

Andrew Pennock, associate professor of public policy at UVA Batten, has been part of FEI’s core program, Leadership in a Democratic Society, for two cycles, teaching workshops on Systems Changes, as well as four-day courses on Mobilizing Change in Complex Systems.

His FEI executive/students serve in some of the highest levels of government (GS-15 and SES) and are often new to their leadership positions and seeking advanced development in strategic thinking, change management and a variety of other leadership skillsets. Pennock has worked with more than 100 executives who, combined, supervise tens of thousands of federal employees and manage programs that touch the lives of almost all Americans through the services they provide. The federal leaders typically live on the FEI residential campus here in Charlottesville, which, while easily accessible, is far enough away to allow participants to become fully immersed in the curriculum.

“It makes sense for agencies to invest in building core leadership competencies for these executives,” Pennock says. “The world is shifting in important ways and the federal government needs to shift accordingly. From technology changes to the nature of threats across the globe, these agencies need to be able to adapt how they continue to serve their core mission in light of these new realities. And leading that change is hard.”

Pennock says FEI programs are designed to help the federal executives improve how their agencies operate both globally and domestically. The agencies provide core services that people depend on from the federal government – from weather prediction and national security to highway maintenance and food safety -- so it’s vital that they have the skills to address current and new challenges.

“Our mission is to develop and strengthen leadership capacity for those in senior leadership roles,” says Dr. Marilyn J. Bugenhagen, faculty chair of the Leadership for a Democratic Society program. “We also focus on the Constitution and what it means to be a constitutional officer, what it takes to lead people, to lead change, and to build coalitions and partnerships across agencies. We also help people focus on why they got into public service in the first place.” 

Pennock says an enormous amount of learning happens between the participants themselves, and he fosters dialogue during his courses to enable the executives to recount their shared challenges and insights into different solutions. For example, many agencies face difficulty recruiting and keeping workers; during the FEI sessions, they can learn from each other how to bring in and acclimate new staff, how to merge the cultures of new staff with the ways older staff are working, and other strategies.

The missions of FEI and UVA Batten align in important ways, adds Pennock, noting that his Leadership in the Public Arena course at the Batten School teaches exactly what FEI strives to convey to the federal executives.  

“The skills these executives need are the same ones our students need. They are deploying them in different settings with different levels of seniority, but the skills of leadership are the same. What I’m teaching to my graduate students about change management are the same skills I am teaching to these executives. It’s a really nice overlap.” 

Pennock sees that his work at FEI also makes him more effective in his Batten classes, where he’s able to talk to students in broad terms about the challenges that senior executives in federal service experience. He hopes the synchronicity between FEI and Batten will lead more students to consider careers in government. 

In the past, Batten and FEI’s partnership supported a series of networking dinners where roughly 40 MPP students would meet and mingle with about 60 of the FEI students who shared their professional insights and career advice. The partnership also anchored an internship opportunity, providing two to three MPP students a summer internship with the FEI Center for Leadership Development.

“We help students get connected with people who are in the federal service already, sort of like a town and gown relationship,” says the institute’s Bugenhagen. “It’s that kind of connection that is important and there is some continued opportunity to develop the relationship. When we have had the opportunity to work with Batten, it has been mutually beneficial for our executives and the students at Batten.”

“Building a network of contacts throughout the federal government to place our students in internships and jobs and to bring in projects is a value-add to students at Batten and to the executives at FEI,” says Pennock. “They are looking for talent, and we have talent.”