Rockefeller Center’s Deputy Director Sadhana Hall Receives Prestigious Award

Sadhana Hall, deputy director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy, is one out of 45 individuals worldwide to receive the Endeavour Executive Leadership Award, presented by the Australian government to leading professionals to undertake research and professional development in Australian institutions.

With support from the Endeavour award, often described as “the Australian equivalent of the Fulbright,” Hall will work at Tranby National Indigenous Adult Education and Training, the country’s oldest independent Indigenous education provider serving the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Belinda Russon, CEO of Tranby, says she looks forward to welcoming Hall to Sydney. "This impactful research project will build Indigenous specific leadership program content and pave the way for meaningful and ongoing international research collaboration between our organizations," Russon says.

Hall will also join Professor Lindon Coombes from the Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). Working together, Hall, Russon, and Coombes will create approaches to adapt leadership curricula developed at Dartmouth’s Rockefeller Center for indigenous learners in Australia. 

“I am excited about this opportunity to adopt, adapt, and adjust lessons we have learned from implementing our leadership programs. I look forward to working with Tranby and Jumbunna” says Hall, who will be in residence in Sydney from early August to early September.

Rockefeller Center Director Andrew Samwick, Sandra L. and Arthur L. Irving '72a P'10 Professor of Economics, says, “Sadhana will bring back the lessons learned from adapting her approach to this community, so that the Rockefeller Center can better prepare to students for a lifetime of leadership, including advocating for and with marginalized groups for their greater opportunities here and abroad.”

Hall joins an exclusive group of people who will develop their expertise and forge partnerships to “create the next generation of international education and research leaders,” the Endeavour Executive Leadership Award announcement states.

As the deputy director of the Rockefeller Center, Hall has designed leadership programs for the college’s undergraduate students. Based on this experience she has authored a book, Teaching Leadership: Bridging Theory and Practice, in which she and her co-author Gama Perruci, dean of the McDonough Leadership Center at Marietta College, share their personal experiences of bridging theory and practice in curricular and co-curricular settings to set the pace and tone for leadership development and lifelong learning.