Virginia Library Leadership Academy (VALLA)
The Virginia Library Leadership Academy is a nationally recognized library leadership program, with the program designers featured as 2025's Library Journal Movers & Shakers. The program is a hybrid in-person leadership workshop and a year long mentorship and networking virtual program. VALLA is not a mangement program, but a leadership program for any library worker at any stage of their career, with a focus on inclusion and accessibility.
The 2026 VALLA Cohort will meet for the VALLA workshop from Sunday, March 22, 2026 - Wednesday, March 25, 2026 in Harrisonburg, VA and commit to 11 months of development and mentorship. View the cohort of future Virginia library leaders below.
VALLA Sponsors
VALLA is fully funded for all attendees through the donations of our generous sponsors. Interested in sponsoring VALLA? Contact VLA Executive Director Jennifer Brown at [email protected]
The 2026 VALLA Cohort thanks...
2026 VALLA Committee
The Virginia Library Association's VALLA Committee consists of previous VALLA graduates who assist in reviewing applications for upcoming cohorts.
Chair:
Clint Rudy, Suffolk Public Library
Co Chair:
Kayla McNabb, Virginia Tech
Reviewers:
Aaron Wells, Central Rappahannock Regional Library
Amanda Jones, Loudoun County Public Library
Brea Gilliam, Arlington City Public Schools
Dana Ladd, Virginia Commonwealth University
Diamond Chavis-Waller, Suffolk Public Library
Jane Gagne, ALA Law for Librarians Liaison to VLA
Molly Barnard, Washington County Public Library
Mission
Provide leadership development and mentoring that is individualized, regular, and accessible. 
Vision
Develop a diverse Virginia library workforce to become leaders in their community at all stages of their careers.
Values
Individualized Leadership:
VALLA values the many leadership styles and stages within Virginia Libraries and aims to meet cohorts where they are in their leadership journey.
Increase Equity, Accessibility and Inclusivity:
Using an equity lens, VALLA is designed to decrease accessibility barriers, including minimizing time commitments and decreasing financial burdens of participants.
Personal Growth:
Realizing that all career growth comes with understanding one’s own strengths, VALLA will incorporate various elements of self-reflection and visioning.
Connection Building:
The spread of great ideas and inspiration only comes through connection with others, therefore VALLA will utilize mentorship, networking, coaching, relationship building, and social learning to create growth within our cohorts and across the Commonwealth.
Who is VALLA For?
Individuals in the library field who are interested in developing their leadership skills, regardless of developmental stage. VALLA is designed to focus on larger characteristics of leadership and can be tailored to the individual’s leadership developmental stage. VALLA will cover leadership topics such as:
- Visioning
- Self-reflection
- Change Management
- Communication/Interpersonal Relationship Building through an EDIB lens
- Community Building
- Cultural Responsiveness
- Identifying opportunities in challenges
- Leveraging strengths
VALLA Structure
- Pre-work that includes readings and asynchronous discussions on Basecamp
- 2-3 day, in-person workshop
- 2 hours/month for 11 months. Includes approximately one hour of new content and one hour of meeting with a mentor group
- Currently occurs in the Spring of even years
What VALLA is Not
The focus of VALLA is on developing leadership skills and characteristics. VALLA will not be covering management topics such as time management, performance evaluations, resource management, project management, board management, budgeting, etc. If you are interested in management topics, you can find a list of management development opportunities here.
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