Rallying in Challenging Times: Four-Session Online Series

Online conversations hosted by Spertus Dean and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Keren E. Fraiman as we confront, respond, and move forward from the coronavirus pandemic

Open to the public. Free to participate.
Join us online for one, two, three, or four sessions. 

Reserve online > 

This program will take place online, via Zoom, a platform for online connection and conversation. Login information will be provided to registrants by email 24 hours in advance of each session.

The current pandemic has challenged everyone individually, organizationally, communally, societally, and globally. In these fast changing and anxiety-producing times, we face myriad decisions, often with little context or information. It can be confusing, even at times paralyzing. Are there ways for us to make better decisions and to lead more effectively, more relationally, more compassionately during these and other difficult conditions? Can times of crisis, such as this, become times of renewal and transformation? 

The sessions bring together Spertus faculty from our Center for Jewish Leadership—including those who teach in Spertus Institute's Certificate in Jewish Leadership (presented in partnership with Northwestern University)—to share their experiences and insights as you face unique and complex challenges in your own life and organization.

These sessions will be interactive, live-streamed for participants through zoom. We will send a zoom invitation closer to the date to all registered attendees. In the meantime, if you don’t have it already, download zoom to your computer or smartphone.

SESSION DESCRIPTIONS

Session 1
Learning from Vulnerability and Resilience in Times of Crisis
Wednesday, April 1, 2020 from 12:00 to 1:00 pm CDT

Dr. Dean P. Bell (right), Spertus President and CEO, and Dr. Mike Hogue (left), Professor at the Meadville Lombard Theological School, share insights from their work on vulnerability, resilience, and religion. How do we learn and grow from vulnerability? How do we become more resilient, that is, how can we become more adaptive, more agile, and take a broader and more global systems perspective? Crises can reveal things that are ordinarily invisible or overlooked; they can bring out the best and worst in us. How do we leverage crisis to learn more about ourselves and the world?

Session 2
Mobilizing Leadership in Times of Crisis
Monday, April 6, 2020 from 12:00 to 1:00 pm CDT

Spertus Chancellor Dr. Hal M. Lewis (above), a renowned Jewish leadership expert and executive coach, will share strategies and best practices for effective leadership during times of crisis. What are the essential elements of effective crisis leadership? How does leading in crisis differ from leadership during “normal” times? What must a leader do to take care of herself during a crisis? How do we lead and communicate strategically in periods of uncertainty? What happens when the crisis subsides?

Session 3
Problem-Solving in Times that Overwhelm
Monday, April 13, 2020 from 12:00 to 1:00 CDT

Spertus Institute faculty member Dr. Russ Rogers (above), an organizational behavior specialist, executive coach, and DePaul University Professor Emeritus, shares insights from his work in change management. How does one best navigate rapid change? What strategies can help us move from being overwhelmed to strategies of mind and action aimed at finding and creating options and possibilities, even in turbulent times?

  Session 4

Understanding Context in Times of Panic
Monday, April 20, 2020 from 12:00 to 1:00 CDT

Spertus President and CEO Dr. Dean P. Bell (above), who also holds a faculty appointment as Professor of Jewish History, shares his research on Jews, plagues, and communal response in a historical context. He will focus on the second pandemic of the bubonic plague and its lessons for today, from quarantine and travel restrictions to civil policy, medical procedures, and religious responses.