Empowering a Nation of Leaders Who Put Country and Community First

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New Politics Leadership Academy (NPLA) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization with a mission to revitalize American democracy by recruiting, supporting and empowering servant leaders who put community and country over self. NPLA recruits individuals with a commitment to the public good, as demonstrated by their service in the military and national service programs. Through its training, NPLA introduces servant leaders to other leadership possibilities, including public office.

The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation awarded a $2 million grant to NPLA to support its leadership training programs across Georgia, which NPLA believes will yield a pipeline of community- and country-first leaders in the state. NPLA trainings engage participants in the leadership development and personal reflection necessary to understand what kind of leaders they can become, and in what ways they can best lead in their communities.

The foundation recently interviewed Emily Cherniack, Executive Director of NPLA, to learn more about the organization’s origins and goals. 

Q: What inspired you to start NPLA? And how has the mission evolved since its inception?

A: Growing up, I wasn’t interested in leadership development or politics at all. But I did spend time in my early twenties as a youth worker with AmeriCorps and that changed my life. I really thought I’d work with youth long-term, but then my boss at the time decided to run for public office. I was recruited to help with the campaign.

I had little experience in campaigns and was shocked by what I learned about how candidates were recruited. Rather than recruiting based on leadership skills and experience, people were being enlisted based on their anger or frustration around singular issues. I saw this as a gap in the marketplace.

I knew from my experience in Ameri-Corps and with other servant leaders who had performed public service in the military and Peace Corps that people coming out of these programs had a ton of leadership experience and had led teams of people from different backgrounds towards a mission larger than themselves. NPLA was created out of the idea that there isn’t a lack of good leaders in our country but that we aren’t always looking for them in the right places.

Q: What is servant leadership and why is it vitial for revitalizing American democracy?

A: I first learned the concept of servant leadership through Robert Greenleaf, the author who originally coined the term. I believe servant leaders are those who think about others first. It’s about the country and community. It’s people who ask themselves “How am I being of service to others?” That is the framework for servant leadership. We look for people who have some type of service experience, especially those who have made a career of putting others first.

Imagine what it would look like if every public official thought about what is best for the community and the country before making any decisions and how transformative that would be for our country.

Q: How do you plan to increase interest in public leadership within Georgia’s communities, and what impact do you hope to see?

A: We’re so excited to work with the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation on this because there are a lot of great leaders in Georgia who have never been asked to participate in public leadership.

We want as many people as possible to think about the ways they can serve in leadership roles. Public leadership can be exclusive and there are real barriers to entry. We want to help break down some of those barriers to create a more representative democracy. We want leadership skills and experience to become a basic criterion for serving in public roles in Georgia. We want integrity, courage and commitment to service to be the norm, not the exception.

Q: With more than 2,000 leaders trained, what do you believe is NPLA’s most significant achievement so far?

A: Our work is really about grounding our servant leaders in knowing who they are and what their Core Values are so that they are resistant to being pulled into the negative side of leadership. We are helping to create a pipeline of leaders who ask the question, “What is best for my constituents, my community and my country?” every single day.  

Q: In the Spring of 2024, among your graduates, 59% identified as people of color. How does NPLA foster diversity within its leadership pipeline?

A:  We are intentional about the networks we recruit from and then create safe spaces for people because standing up and leading can be scary and intimidating for different reasons for different people. It’s important for us to make our recruits feel safe, seen and supported. We can’t say that we want a representative democracy if we’re only recruiting one race of people.

Q: Looking ahead, how do you envision NPLA and its role in transforming political leadership nationwide?

A: Leadership development training should be the norm before someone moves into public leadership. When people go through the internal centering work of knowing who they are and get really clear about their core values, then I think our work is done. I think that’s what success looks like for us.