Leadership Report
Spring 2026
*Includes our flagship programs: the McNulty Leadership Program, the Lipman Family Prize, and the Center for Leadership and Change Management
Dear Board Members,
School Partners, and Friends,
As summer unfolds, we hope you are finding time to recharge, reflect, and enjoy the season.
This past year marked two significant milestones for the McNulty Leadership Program (MLP): the 25th anniversary of the Wharton Leadership Ventures and Fellows Program and the 15th anniversary of the Lipman Family Prize and Lipman Fellows Program. In this newsletter, we are pleased to share highlights from these celebrations, reflections from another inspiring Authors@Wharton season, and a snapshot of impact through our 2025–2026 By the Numbers section.
One theme emerged repeatedly throughout this year: the power of connection. Across our programs, students learned from one another, built meaningful relationships with mentors and alumni, and engaged with leaders whose experiences challenged them to think differently about their own potential.
These connections are at the heart of the MLP. They create opportunities for reflection, growth, and action, while strengthening a community that extends far beyond Wharton. We are grateful to everyone who contributes their time, expertise, and encouragement to help our students become thoughtful and effective leaders.
As you read these highlights, we invite you to explore the full breadth of MLP on our website. Through more than 30 programs serving undergraduate, graduate, and executive education audiences, we are building a vibrant community of leaders committed to making a difference.
We also welcome your feedback on this newsletter. Your insights help us better share the stories, impact, and experiences that matter most to our readers, and we invite you to complete our brief feedback survey.
Thank you, as always, for walking alongside us as we invest in the next generation of compassionate and capable leaders.
With gratitude,
The MLP Senior Leadership Team
Anne Greenhalgh, Umi Howard, Jeff Klein,
Gwendolyn McDay, Euria Min, Jess Segal, Mike Useem
For more than 25 years, the Wharton Leadership Ventures (WLV) has challenged students to lead through uncertainty, connect deeply with others, and discover their own capacity for impact. The lessons learned on these expeditions stay with participants forever. This year, WLV marked an incredible milestone: 25 years of transformative experiences that extend the classroom into the real world, placing students in unpredictable and challenging environments and creating experiences that participants and Venture Fellows (VF) can draw on for a lifetime, both personally and professionally.
Preparing Venture Fellows for the Journey
Undergraduate and MBA Fellows participated in immersive trainings designed to strengthen facilitation, peer coaching, and decision-making under pressure. Gaining skills in emotional intelligence, self-reflection, resilience, and handling ambiguity, VFs deepened their capacity to guide and support peers in dynamic environments while carrying forward the distinctive leadership culture that has become a hallmark of the Ventures experience.
For the first time, faculty participated throughout both August and November MBA trainings, adding a deeper layer of reflection and analysis to the experience. Founders of the Wynford Institute joined fellows in the field and facilitated discussions grounded in team dynamics and leadership behaviors that emerged organically throughout the trainings.
Expanding WLV Reach Through Fundraising
To sustain the WLV program for the next 25 years, MLP, with the support of the Dean's office and Wharton External Affairs, embarked on a year-long fundraising initiative designed to:
- Sustain and Endow VF programs* to empower more students to lead and facilitate transformational experiences.
- Develop New Ventures and Intensives by building and sustaining partnerships with world-class expedition leaders as well as fire and rescue organizations, U.S armed forces branches, and U.S. space organizations.
- Increase Access for All Students by lowering financial barriers to participation to ensure all Wharton students can join these life-changing expeditions.
- Celebrate the leadership of Dr. Mike Useem, whose bold vision launched Wharton Leadership Ventures 25 years ago, with a March 2026 celebration dinner befitting his contributions.
In case you missed the Wharton Alumni Magazine story, click here.
In honor of the 25th Anniversary of WLV, please view our celebration video.
WLV Highlights & Innovations
In the 2025-2026 academic year, a total of 126 undergraduate, 344 MBA, and 39 WEMBA students participated in Expeditions. 80 Penn Athletic Wharton Leadership Academy (PAWLA) juniors also participated in an Expedition. 171 MBA and WEMBA students participated in two longstanding leadership intensives: the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) intensive and the Quantico intensive, offered once in the fall and once in the spring, providing an opportunity to engage with leadership frameworks in high-stress operational environments.
Undergraduates completed a high-altitude traverse through Cotopaxi National Park and the Antisana Ecological Reserve, navigating the Condor Trek across volcanic terrain while developing endurance, navigation, and collaborative leadership skills. The expedition, in its second year, included eight participants supported by two Undergraduate VFs.
Building on the success of the Undergraduate Venture, a new Ecuador venture was also offered to MBA students this year.
Undergraduates completed a multi-day backcountry expedition through Chilean Patagonia, trekking and rafting through remote terrain while practicing leadership, communication, and team decision-making in rapidly changing environmental conditions. The expedition included 18 participants and two Undergraduate VFs.
Undergraduates participated in a multidisciplinary expedition in the Atacama Desert that incorporated backpacking, rock climbing, and high-altitude navigation. The expedition challenged participants to adapt to unfamiliar environments and work collaboratively under physical and environmental stress. The expedition included 14 participants and two Undergraduate VFs.
Introduced as a new MBA Venture this year, this expedition took participants to the Southern French Alps for a multidisciplinary leadership experience that combined alpine trekking, rock climbing, and summit attempts in a remote mountain terrain. Delivered in partnership with Mountain Path, WLV’s newest expedition partner, the Venture challenged students to navigate shifting environmental conditions and complex team dynamics while building resilience, communication, and adaptive leadership skills.
WLV continued to grow Venture X, a shorter-format experiential leadership model designed to increase accessibility and broaden participation. In partnership with Connections@Wharton and the Wharton Dean’s Office, Venture X created opportunities for students and groups across Penn to engage in connection-based opportunities closer to campus. The program was open and free to all Penn students, and ran three times over the year, with one customized iteration offered exclusively to Undergraduate TAs of Wharton 2010: Business Communication for Impact.
WLV initiated Phase I of a comprehensive risk management review in partnership with Risk Resolve. Extending into Summer 2026, the review includes surveys, interviews, and operational analysis involving participants, VFs, staff, and expedition partners. The process is designed to identify growth opportunities, clarify roles, strengthen systems and communication, and support the continued evolution of WLV’s safety and risk management practices.
Launched in 2012 by Professor Adam Grant, the Authors@Wharton Speaker Series is one of our most popular and well-attended programs. The series brings world-renowned speakers to campus to enrich intellectual engagement and encourage dialogue among students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
In 2025-2026, the series featured Brené Brown, Oz Perlman, Andrea Jones-Rooy, and Justin Gregg.
Each event draws attendees from across the Wharton and Penn communities, sparking insight and reflection around some of today’s most pressing societal, human, and leadership challenges. The series is provided on campus and has a webinar component for the WEMBA community.
Date: September 22, 2025
Location: Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
Registration #: 964
Brené Brown's new book, Strong Ground: The Lessons of Daring Leadership, the Tenacity of Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Human Spirit, is an urgent call to reimagine the essentials of courageous leadership. Brown delivers practical, actionable insights that illuminate the mindsets and skillsets essential to reclaiming focus and driving growth – through connection, discipline, and accountability.
Date: November 3, 2025
Location: Penn Museum
Registration #: 842
Oz "The Mentalist" Pearlman is the world’s preeminent mentalist, renowned for his captivating performances and extraordinary mind-reading abilities. He first rose to national prominence as a finalist on America’s Got Talent and later earned an Emmy Award for his acclaimed NBC special, Oz Knows. His new book, Read Your Mind: Proven Habits for Success from the World’s Greatest Mind Reader, shares tips, tricks, and habits, along with stories from his astonishing career, that can help anyone harness the power of persuasion to overcome life's hurdles.
Date: February 2, 2026
Location: Huntsman Hall
Registration #: 260
Andrea Jones-Rooy, PhD, is a data scientist and standup comedian. Dr. Justin Gregg is a scientist, performer, and author of the international bestseller If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity. Together, Andrea and Justin explore how to make complex science entertaining and memorable through the lens of improv.
On Thursday, April 16, 2026, over 110 guests attended the 15th annual Lipman Family Prize Award Ceremony held at the Penn Museum to honor and celebrate the incredible work of our 2026 Lipman Prize winners: Kheyti, Barefoot College International (BCI), and Food for All Africa (FFAA). Our grand prize winner, Kheyti, received $250,000 in unrestricted funds, while BCI and FFAA each received $150,000. All winners will receive executive education benefits and support from the Wharton School and the University of Pennsylvania.
The event was emceed by two of MLP's dynamic 2025-26 Lipman Fellows, Elliot Kim (MPH’27) and Yasieli DeJesus Perez (MSEd’26). Kaushik Kappagantulu of Kheyti, Elijah Amoo Addo of FFAA, and Sue Stevenson of BCI gave engaging presentations about their innovative and impactful work.
Before the award ceremony, the Lipman team hosted the winners on campus for two days, where they engaged with faculty and staff from centers and schools across the University. During their visit, the winners shared more about their work, learned about relevant research and scholarship underway at Penn, and explored opportunities for collaboration with the Penn community.
During the award ceremony, Lipman founder Barry Lipman, W'70, reflected on the past 15 years and what the Lipman Family Prize has achieved:
"Our goal was simple, yet ambitious: to support organizations that are not only doing good, but doing it well—combining innovation, measurable impact, and strong leadership to take on some of the world’s toughest challenges with the ability to transfer those attributes over geography and need and to other organizations. What we did not fully imagine at the time was the extraordinary community that would grow from that vision. That vision has now flourished into a global network:
This ripple effect of connection—across organizations, across students, across communities—is at the very heart of what was hoped for 15 years ago." - Barry Lipman, W'70, Lipman Family Prize Founder
Read the 2026 Winner* press release here. Read more on the Lipman impact here and in our Lipman Letter.
In honor of the 15th Anniversary of the Lipman Family Prize, please view our retrospective video.
*The 2027 application cycle will open on July 1.
An interdisciplinary fellowship program
The Lipman Fellows Program provides graduate students from schools across Penn with the opportunity to learn about the global social impact sector through engagement in the Lipman philanthropic process.
Lipman Fellows participate in various phases of the prize selection process, gaining real-world experience in the philanthropy and social impact sectors. With guidance and support from Penn staff and key partners, fellows:
- Review applications submitted by nonprofit organizations from around the world
- Conduct a rigorous due diligence process of all applications
- Prepare and present materials for the Prize Committee
- Meet with leaders of winning organizations
- Participate in the Award Ceremony
Read more about the Lipman Fellows in their year-in-review blog here.
This year, 16 students participated in two retreats designed to build community, develop leadership skills, and strengthen their understanding of the social impact sector. They also engaged in a series of Saturday sessions, early morning weekday meetings, and informal gatherings where fellows put into practice due diligence skills that are core to high-impact philanthropy.
The September retreat focused on team formation, strengths-based leadership, individual goal setting, and preparation for the prize selection process. Fellows explored key leadership competencies such as communication, teamwork, group decision-making, and emotional intelligence.
During the January retreat, fellows explored leadership presence and creative collaboration, developed communication and presentation skills, and prepared for the annual Prize Committee meeting. Fellows also participated in the Leadership Navigation Challenge, a core McNulty Leadership Program team-based learning activity.
We hope you enjoyed reading our Spring 2026 Leadership Report. We'd love to get your input on future content for our newsletter. If you have a specific MLP program you would like to hear more about, ideas on content, and/or suggestions for ways to improve our newsletter, we would love to hear from you.
Thank you for your support!
McNulty Leadership Program
The Wharton School
https://leadership.wharton.upenn.edu/
whartonlp@wharton.upenn.edu
