Leadership Academy for Excellence in Disability Services
The sixth class of Tennessee’s Leadership Academy for Excellence in Disability Services (LAEDS) launched in the spring of 2024, with 24 participants representing 12 different state agencies. (Read more in our June 2024 e-news article.) The fifth LAEDS cohort graduated in the spring of 2024 after beginning in fall 2023. (Read which agencies were represented in the 2023–2024 class in this article.)
The Council on Developmental Disabilities created and launched this program in partnership with Tennessee’s Department of Human Resources.
LAEDS is a leadership development program for state employees whose work has a direct impact on Tennesseans with disabilities and their families. The goal is to ensure that leaders who work in state government programs that serve Tennesseans with disabilities operate from a shared set of values, goals and principles. The academy builds relationships and collaboration among state agency partners.
LAEDS graduates have included employees from the following agencies and departments:
- Bureau of TennCare
- Commission on Aging and Disability
- Commission on Children and Youth
- Department of Children's Services
- Department of Correction
- Department of Education
- Department of Environment and Conservation
- Department of Health
- Department of Human Services / Division of Vocational Rehabilitation
- Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
- Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services
- Department of Safety and Homeland Security
- Department of Transportation
- Department of Veterans Services
- Office of the Governor
For questions about LAEDS, contact our Director of Leadership Development, Blake Shearer, at blake.a.shearer@tn.gov
Previous Years
The fourth class of Tennessee's Leadership Academy for Excellence in Disability Services (LAEDS) graduated in the spring of 2023 (Read more from the Council's April 2023 e-news article here) and the 5th cohort began the fall of 2023 (read which agencies are represented in the '23-'24 class in this e-news article.)