ABOUT OUR PROGRAMS

Our program is open to all professional sectors of Montana and is designed to enhance leadership skills of those in various stages of their career. To date, Leadership Montana has nearly 900 graduates, including alumni who are leading Montana in a number of ways. With an increased awareness and a commitment to service, our alumni shape Montana’s future with enhanced leadership skills and a deepened knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing Montana.

We meet for seven sessions over eight months, September through May, with graduation at the last session in May. Each cohort visits different communities across the state for three days of intensive study.

***We have full weeks listed as we may have the opportunity to offer a double cohort with one group in session Monday-Wednesday and another Wednesday-Friday.

Tuition for Leadership Montana is $5,000 per person as well as a non-refundable application fee of $100. This includes the program experiences, materials, and meals provided at the Session. Class participants are required to pay for their own travel and lodging. While there are cost-saving options available, we estimate the total cost of the program to be between $6,000-$8,000 depending on personal preferences and travel location.

Leadership Montana’s unique curriculum weaves work by modern thought leaders and experts like Simon Sinek, Brené Brown, Daniel Goldman, Steven Covey, Patricia Hughes, and others with Carl Jung’s Theories of Psychological Types to create a deep and meaningful learning experience.

We incorporate hands-on learning activities in small groups and full-class discussion. Setting up activities often involves pre-assigned reading and short in-class lectures and videos.

Each session includes lessons from Gracious Space: Working Better Together, a collaborative leadership model that is the foundation of our work together. Gracious Space is a core body of work developed by the Center for Ethical Leadership which has helped over 15,000 people in 30 states and 45 countries to work better together around critical issues. The Center has created and used Gracious Space in many sectors, including health care, business, government, community, nonprofit, and education.

Our homegrown curriculum, Leading in Montana, utilizes the Myers Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) to explore how our individual behaviors influence how we lead. With this knowledge and understanding of who we are, leaders can most effectively understand how to lead in various situations like these main themes of our work together:

• Leading Organizations
• Leading Teams
• Communication and Conflict
• Leading Through Change
• Building Coalitions
• Leading Montana into the Future

This work must remain flexible to adapt to the changing times and the needs of your class, so what you see here may shift slightly. You help us shape where this journey goes. There is no doubt that we will dig in deeply around how to navigate this pandemic and societal change.

Carmen McSpadden – Head Trainer

A part of Leadership Montana since its inception, Carmen served on the organizing committee, is a Class of 2006 graduate, a trainer since 2007, now serving as head trainer. As a consultant specializing in leadership and organizational development services, she serves a variety of clients, among them Leadership Montana and the U.S. State Department.

For over twenty years, Carmen directed the MSU Leadership Institute. She was the founding director of the Leadership Fellows Program and adjunct faculty in management for the Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship (JJCBE). She creates leadership curriculum, supporting the creation of Leadership MSU and Developing Excellence in Academic Leadership. Decades of board service to public schools and nonprofits, Carmen currently is President of Headwaters Economics, and has served in that role for over a decade. Prior to MSU, Carmen co-owned a successful adventure travel company with travel throughout the West and the world.

Carmen is a certified in Leadership Challenge™, Gracious Space™, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator™ (MBTI), Facilitating Intercultural Dialogue™, Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument™ – Advanced Training & Coaching, Real Colors Personality Test™, Sustained Dialogue & Diversity™, Equity and Inclusion™, Brain Mapping™, Ki ThoughtBridge™. Her expertise includes leadership, strategic planning, scenario planning, leading change, conflict resolution, team building, communication effectiveness, coaching for leaders, self-awareness, emotional intelligence, managing performance, coaching and goal setting.

In 2024, Carmen received her 9th Chamber of Commerce/MSU Alumni Association’s Awards for Excellence/Founders Day Award. Carmen was chosen as one of MSU’s 125 Extraordinary Ordinary Women throughout MSU’s 125-year history. She received the Community Mediation Center’s Peacemaker Award, Bozeman Daily Chronicle’s 2008 Woman of the Year, Prospera & JJCBE 2012 Mentor of the Year, 2015 Leadership Montana’s Service Award and in 2016 the prestigious Athena Women’s Leadership Award. Carmen and her husband live in Bozeman and have two grown sons.

Hatton Littman – Gracious Space Director

As a leadership and empowerment consultant for Leadership Montana, Hatton Littman handles all things Gracious Space. Hatton has well-rounded experience in education, technology, and media and holds a B.A. in Communications and Philosophy and an M.F.A. in Film Production.  

She is a Gracious Space Certified Facilitator and she’s trained in the NOLS Leadership Model, and Nonviolent Communication. Throughout her career Hatton has worked to support the power of public education to secure our democracy, create thriving communities, and change lives.  

Hatton currently serves on the board of Missoula Community Access Television (MCAT), a nonprofit that promotes the spread of information and exchange of views, ideas, and opinions. She is also a graduate of Leadership Missoula and Leadership Montana Class of 2017 and Masters Class of 2019.  

Hatton has two sons who have flown the coop and when she is not out saving the world, she makes art and relaxes with family and friends in the great outdoors.  

Applications are OPEN! 

If you’re interested in Leadership Montana’s Class of 2026 (Starting September of 2025, ending June of 2026), please click the following link to access the application software: https://www.grantinterface.com/Home/Logon?urlkey=leadmt

Please select the following FAQ 2026 to read about the most commonly asked questions.

Please email our Program Director, Anna Berg (anna@leadershipmontana.org), if you have any further questions.

Thank you for your interest in Leadership Montana!

After the application process closes our selection committee will review all applications with a final decision to be made in April. You will be notified of your status in the program during the first week of May. To secure your position in class, along with your commitment form, a non-refundable $500 deposit (that will be applied towards your tuition) will be due on May 15th. The remaining tuition of $4500 is due by June 30.

If you are selected and are unable to participate,  you may defer your spot for one year and join the next cohort.

Full participation in all sessions is expected, and attendance at the orientation and opening session is mandatory. Any participant missing more than one session for any reason may be asked to withdraw from the program with no portion of the tuition refunded. Missing any session or portion of a session will detract from the experience for both you and your classmates. For this reason, we also ask that participants strictly limit the use of cell phones during all sessions.

We also expect that participants, upon graduation, will become involved in our alumni organization and remain a dues-paying member. Dues are $100 per year.

Leadership Montana is competitive. Many applicants will apply two or three times before being accepted into the program. The Selection Committee places a high value on geographic diversity as well as industry/sector representation. If there are several people applying from your line of work or your community, the process is even more competitive.

Our class size is limited to 42-48 members to ensure optimal relationship-building among the participants. We receive more applications than we can accept into the class in a given year, and if you are not selected, you may wish to be considered the following year.