Month: May 2025

By Mark Updegrove

In the fall of 2014, I joined a group of 15 or so representing the foundations of George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Lyndon Johnson convened at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas to conduct interviews with candidates for the first class of Presidential Leadership Scholars. The concept was simple: To recruit those already making a difference in the public or private sectors and increase their impact by sharing new ways of thinking about leadership.  

We had high hopes. Just weeks earlier, Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton jovially announced the program at the Newseum in Washington, the U.S. Capitol looming in the distance outside the window. “At a time of heightened partisanship in Washington,” the New York Times wrote of the occasion, “it seemed a brief respite to watch former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton sit side by side on stage and gush about each other’s leadership and acute decision-making skills.”   

Still, though PLS had been announced auspiciously by two two-term former presidents, we didn’t quite know what to expect. What would the program ultimately look like? How would it take shape?  

We interviewed in groups of three, prospective PLSers beamed to us virtually, a somewhat novel concept before the COVID-19 Zoom boom. As we met the candidates, drawing them out on their resumes and Personal Leadership Projects, we realized just how extraordinary they were – their accomplishments, their aspirations, their spirit.   

At one point, after my fellow interviewers and I had thrown a barrage of questions at an especially singular applicant, we asked her if she had any questions of us.  

“Yes,” she answered. “What gives you hope?” 

“You!” we all responded in unison.  

And that has been one of the constants of PLS. As much as the program may give hope to those in each cohort, we, the ones offering the lessons of our respective presidents, draw inspiration from you and all that you’re doing to make our world a better place.  

With our divided nation at a turning point, your efforts have never been more important. You hear that phrase a lot – never been more important – and it can sound like hyperbole. But look around, tune into any responsible news channel – how can it not be true?  

At such times, one could cynically turn his or her back on our country and cast a blind eye toward the troubles of the rest of the world. So, while your commitments are vitally important, they’re also doubly admirable.  

One of the lessons of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency is that it is “We the People” who make the difference in our country – and not just because we vote or pay taxes. LBJ, as you heard in our PLS module at the LBJ Library, would not have seen the fruition of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, or the Fair Housing Act – huge leaps forward in the quest for civil rights and social justice – without Martin Luther King and the soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement he led boldly awakening “the conscience of a nation.” The people, propelling a movement, held our nation to its highest ideals. They made the difference.  

But, as Dr. King showed us, it required leadership.  

You are the leaders. Through your efforts and initiatives, you are the ones strengthening our country in a time of need and building a more just, equitable, humane world. You are why PLS was created – to offer you a greater set of tools; open up a network of like-minded colleagues; and lead us, in big ways and small, toward a brighter day. 

In so doing, you give us hope. 

Mark Updegrove is President and CEO of the LBJ Foundation. 

By Nicole Hawkins

Leaders from across the country who make up the Presidential Leadership Scholars (PLS) Class of 2025 arrived at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum in Austin, Texas, unsure of what the days ahead would bring.  

On the heels of meeting with President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush at the George W. Bush Presidential Center and with President Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Clinton Presidential Center, it was difficult to predict what a program module would look like without the president for which the library is named.  

But what Scholars soon learned is that LBJ’s influence lives on — through the lessons taught in PLS, the legislation he championed, and the personal experiences of the people who knew and loved him.  

His influence is evident through his daughter, Luci Baines Johnson, who spoke with Scholars on their first night in Austin. She, like her father, has led a life driven by purpose and urged the Class of 2025 to do the same.  

“If you have a purpose-driven life, happiness and everything that lights up your world follows,” she said.  

Her belief in Scholars’ ability to make a difference in our country and the world was palpable for those in the room. “Don’t give up hope,” she urged them. “You are our hope for tomorrow.” 

Throughout their time in Austin, Scholars learned that LBJ’s ability to influence and persuade was critical to the passage of consequential legislation that brings hope and promise to millions still today. The class heard this firsthand from civil rights leader and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Andrew Young, who shared his experiences fighting for equality and working alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  

President Johnson worked with leaders like King and Young to advance the Civil Rights Movement and was a fierce advocate for the laws he knew would shape the future of the U.S., including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.  

The class had a front row seat to how LBJ used his own life experiences to advance other important legislation like the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which provided federal funding to education programs, especially those in high-poverty areas. On a tour of LBJ’s ranch in Johnson City, Texas, Scholars even saw the one-room schoolhouse Johnson attended as a child and where he later signed that very bill at a picnic table in 1965.  

“One of the secrets of Lyndon Johnson is that he was always prepared,” Larry Temple, Chairman of the LBJ Foundation and former White House Counsel to President Johnson, told the Scholars. “He always knew more than anyone.”  

LBJ prepared so that he could lead with purpose and build bridges with others to make a difference and get things done. And PLS is preparing leaders to do the same. “We can build bridges, and we need a new generation of builders,” Roy Spence, co-founder and chairman of leading advertising agency GSD&M, said in a conversation with the class.  

“There’s an ‘us’ in the USA,” he continued. “We have to build bridges to build a better us.” 

On the last day of each module, Scholars take time to do just that. PLS Co-Director Dr. Mike Hemphill leads the group through an exercise focused on bridge building, where they learn to have difficult conversations and listen with intention. 

“Listening helped me be a leader,” President and CEO of Huston-Tillotson University and 2016 PLS alumna Dr. Melva Wallace told the Scholars. “That’s probably the most critical piece [of leadership] – listening and learning.” 

The past four months, Scholars have listened to and learned from one another, and this is only the beginning. The PLS network is more than 500 Scholars strong, and the alumni continue to collaborate with and support one another years after their time in the program.  

“The true secret sauce of this program…is the network, because that’s where the work gets done,” Wallace said.  

The Class of 2025 will head to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas, next before their final module in Washington, D.C., in June. For many of them, the influence of PLS – like that of President Johnson – will never end.  

View more photos of Module Four here.