Saving Your Application in Progress

You may save your application in progress and return to it at any time before your final submission. We recommend saving your work frequently. To save your work, select the "Save my progress and resume later" option at the top of each page. You will be prompted to enter an email address and password each time you save. You may use the same email and password each time. When logging back into an application in progress, the system will recognize the email and password combination used most recently. Hitting "Next" at the bottom of each page does not save your work.  

Application Fee and Recommendation Letters

Your submission is not considered complete until we have also received your application, your two letters of recommendation, and the $80 application fee.  Payment instructions are included at the end of the application. Be sure to request recommendation letters from your references in advance by sending them the Candidate Recommendation Form.  Letters must be submitted directly to LNC through the form on that page by 5 pm on June 24, 2026. 

Please review the schedule, program time commitment, selection criteria, and program fee information on the next pages before proceeding with the application. 

Some organizations have an internal process for selecting their applicant(s) for Leadership North Carolina. We recommend checking with the individual or department that handles the LNC partnership for your organization prior to completing an application to make sure you are following your organization's protocols.

Contact Kelly Turner, LNC associate director, at kelly@leadershipnc.org or (919) 803-5325 with any questions.

The LNC Selection Committee seeks to identify individuals most likely to use their leadership abilities for the long-term benefit of the state of North Carolina. Class size is typically around 55. Space limitations will result in a number of highly qualified applicants not being selected for Class 34. Applicants who are not selected are encouraged to apply in subsequent years.

Successful candidates will be well-rounded and actively involved in many facets of their communities, such as business, education, the arts, religion, government, community-based organizations, and volunteer service. The selection committee will seek diversity in areas including, but not limited to, profession, geography, education, stage of career, ethnicity, and gender. LNC does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, race, religion, sexual orientation, or national origin. 

Prior leadership program participation is not required but may be noted on your application.

Completed applications, two letters of recommendation, and the application fee are due by 5 pm on June 24, 2026. Applications will be reviewed in July and notification will begin by early August. 

The program fee for the 2026-2027 program year is $7,000. It will be billed upon notification of acceptance and due by August 31, 2026, to ensure participation. Payment plans may be arranged in unique circumstances. The program fee must be paid in full prior to the Orientation session for accepted participants to remain in the program. 

The program fee covers most meals during each in-person session, but participants are responsible for travel and lodging costs. Staying at the group's designated hotel is encouraged for all in-person sessions. LNC will provide a list of session hotels and the negotiated group rate to those accepted into the program.

A limited number of partial, need-based scholarships are available through the William Garrett Fund to help candidates for whom the program fee presents a barrier to participation. LNC may not be able to provide the full requested amount but will work with you to support your participation. William Garrett Fund scholarships generally fall between $500 and $2,000. 

Through a generous grant from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, we are better able to support statewide participation in the LNC program through the BCBSNC 100 County Initiative Scholarship. Applicants from counties that have been historically underrepresented in the LNC program receive priority consideration for this limited funding, which covers $6,250 of the $7,000 program fee as well as hotel accommodations during the program year.

To be considered for either or both of these scholarship programs, applicants must submit the separate scholarship application after completing this program application and before 5 pm on June 24. 2026. The single application for both scholarships can be found here and is also available through the "Apply" tab under "Core Program" on the LNC website.

Only candidates accepted into the program will be considered for scholarship funding. Scholarship applications are reviewed separately--applying for a scholarship will not impact consideration of your program application.

The six questions noted as required must be answered for your application to be considered complete; the seventh question is optional. You are encouraged to be thoughtful and complete in your responses.  We recommend that you draft your responses in a separate document and paste them into your application. Remember to save your online application frequently throughout the process.

Program Protocols

1. Attendance: To graduate from Leadership North Carolina, participants must meet the attendance requirements outlined here. Attendance at the October Orientation session and at the January Inclusive Leadership Training is mandatory. Failure to attend the Orientation and Inclusive Leadership sessions in full requires withdrawal from the program. Absences at the five remaining sessions are counted in segments. There are 25 segments during the program year: each morning or afternoon counts as one segment, as does the class dinner.

There are no “excused absences.” If a participant misses more than six segments, they are automatically withdrawn from the program. The Board of Directors’ policy since LNC’s inception has been that missing more than the number of segments outlined here results in an unrecoverable loss of content and class interaction, even if due to work, illness, or emergency.

2. Program Fee Policy: If a participant withdraws or is dismissed from the program at any time for any reason, that participant shall not have any portion of their program fee refunded. The program fee is not transferable from one year to the next.

3. Schedule for Class 34 (2026 - 2027): The dates, locations, and session structure for the full program year are outlined below. Start and end times may shift slightly for individual session elements.

·       Orientation: October 6-8, 2026, New Bern (full attendance is mandatory)

·             Program Sessions

o   Government: November 4-6, 2026, Raleigh **Note Wed. – Fri. schedule for this session only**

o   Education: December 1-3, 2026, Greensboro 

o   Inclusive Leadership: January 13-14 (full attendance is mandatory)

o   Health and Human Services: February 2-4, 2027, Greenville

o   Economic Development: March 2-4, 2027, Charlotte

o   Environment: April 6-8, 2027, Asheville

·             Planning Meeting/Graduation: May 4-5, 2027, Raleigh

Orientation Session Schedule (Oct.)

Participation in the full Orientation session is mandatory. Missing any element of Orientation other than the optional breakfasts or the optional Thursday lunch requires withdrawal with no refund.

Program Sessions Schedule (Nov., Dec., Jan., Feb., March, April)

^Counts towards program attendance requirement.

*The November session follows a Wednesday – Friday schedule. There are no Tuesday elements for the January session. Participation in the January session is mandatory. Failure to attend the full Inclusive Leadership session requires withdrawal with no refund.

Planning Meeting and Graduation Schedule (May)

^#Required

Monthly Learning Team Calls and Homework: Each participant will be assigned to a Learning Team for the program year. Learning Teams schedule 1-hour-long phone calls between each session (monthly from October through May). Calls are optional but encouraged. For each session, participants are asked to review materials in advance to enhance the session experience. These are the only time commitments outside the scheduled session programming.

4. COVID-19 Protocols: The safety of our participants, partners, and staff and the quality of the Leadership North Carolina program experience are LNC’s top priorities. Policies related to COVID testing, masking, and social distancing are defined in consultation with LNC’s Health Advisory Task Force. Compliance with these policies will be mandatory for attendance and participation in all in-person LNC programming and events. LNC strongly encourages all participants to be fully vaccinated and boosted before attending in-person programming. LNC reserves the right to shift any session(s) to a virtual format as dictated by continued impacts of COVID-19 and any variants on organizations, vendors, and venues and in keeping with government regulations and recommendations. Shifting any session or sessions to a virtual format will not impact the program fee.

5. Program Planning Committee for Year 2: Participation in Leadership North Carolina is a two-year commitment. The schedule for the first year is outlined above. Following graduation, each participant is required to serve on a planning committee for one of the five program sessions or play another role in preparing the program for the following class. There is one required in-person meeting held the day of graduation (May 5, 2027). The remainder of the planning, research, and outreach to presenters is done virtually (approximately one hour-long meeting per month) and by email. Planning committee members are expected to attend the session they help plan.

6. Conduct: Participants are neither employees nor agents of LNC but are expected to conform with basic standards of conduct as a condition of their affiliation with LNC. Any conduct that discriminates, threatens, intimidates, harasses, or coerces on any basis a fellow participant, LNC employee, Board member, alumnus, volunteer, visitor, or a member of the public involved in LNC activities at any time, including not only LNC sessions as described above, but also non-business and/or purely social functions associated with the LNC program, will not be tolerated and will result in immediate dismissal from the program. This prohibition includes, but is not limited to, all acts of inappropriate conduct as described above or discrimination, including harassment or discrimination that is based on an individual's gender, race, age, disability, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. Any individual who believes they have been subject to conduct in violation of this policy should immediately report their concern to the LNC president, or alternatively, if the complaint involves the LNC president, to the LNC Board Chair. The organization will follow the process outlined in the whistleblower policy. 

7. Overnight Accommodations: As outlined in the application information, the program fee covers all expenses except individual travel to and from each session and overnight accommodations. Participants are responsible for making their own reservations at the identified base hotel for each session. A list of designated hotels will be provided.

8. Meals and Special Needs: The program fee covers the following for each session: Tuesday evening’s optional reception (heavy hors d’oeuvres); breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Wednesday; and breakfast and lunch on Thursday. Snacks are also provided. We will do our best in partnership with vendors to accommodate dietary restrictions shared with us in advance.

9. Phone Calls: As a courtesy to speakers and fellow participants, mobile devices should be in silent mode during session and their use limited. 

10. Guests: The program year is designed for participants and their classmates. Participants are notified when there is an opportunity for guests to attend. Otherwise, please do not invite guests to attend LNC activities. Occasionally, LNC Board members and alumni will attend session content.

11. Engagement: Participants are encouraged to engage and share thoughts and views respectfully during each session. To maximize class participation, participants should allow others to speak if they have already spoken.

12. Virtual Session Protocols: For any sessions or events conducted on a virtual platform, participants are requested to use their cameras and to be visible to their classmates whenever possible. Recommendations and guidelines for effective virtual interaction with classmates and presenters will be provided. To protect the confidentiality of participants and presenters, no session content may be recorded or shared by participants at any time, whether programming is virtual or in person.

13. Special Interest Affiliation and Individual Views: LNC is a non-partisan and non-sectarian organization and will not engage in any activities favoring or opposing the election, platform, or views of any political or special interest party, group, or faction, nor will it attempt to develop or promote any policies or positions. We encourage participants to share their views with our speakers and with each other, recognizing that our objective is to inform and understand and not to support or condemn any views, coerce others to a particular viewpoint, or reach consensus as a group.

14. Confidentiality: Candid discussions and exchange of opinions and ideas are made possible by the expectation that participants will treat all comments made during any program session as confidential. Participants agree to treat the comments of session speakers, presenters, and participants as confidential. While participants are free to share ideas they learn with non-participants, participants agree that they will not attribute to any speaker the substance of any such comments from a program session to non-participants.

15. Use of Contact Information: Any contact information for LNC participants, alumni, board, and staff provided by LNC is to be used solely for communications related to the LNC program. It may not be used for fundraising, solicitations, business development, and the like, and it may not be shared in any form for any purpose. 

16. Evaluations: To continuously improve the LNC program, participants will be asked to complete an evaluation form at the conclusion of each session. Cooperation in these evaluations is most appreciated and will help to serve future classes.

17. Attire: Dress for LNC sessions is generally business casual attire. Individual segments of some session agendas may call for either business attire or casual/outdoor attire. The session agendas distributed in advance will include recommendations for appropriate attire.

18. Class Materials: All class information will be posted in the Class Portal of the LNC website and updated throughout the program year.

19. Inclement Weather: We will still meet if there is inclement weather. Updates around any program adjustments or shifts to virtual programming will be shared via email as quickly as circumstances allow.

20. Emergency Contact: If, after close of business on the day before the beginning of session, you wish to contact or leave a message with LNC regarding your participation in that week’s activities, contact Kelly Turner via email at kelly@leadershipnc.org or by text at (919) 803-5325.

21. Scholarship Campaign: Each member of the participating class is asked to make a contribution based on their ability and the value they find in the LNC program to the William Garrett Fund. This fund provides partial need-based scholarships to future LNC participants. The class sets the fundraising goal, with a primary goal of 100% class participation. 

Be sure to use the check box above to save your work frequently. Use "Tab" instead of "Return" to advance between fields.

Due to the time commitment, cost, and strict attendance policy, all applicants must have the full support of their employers.  By completing the information below, the applicant affirms that their employer endorses this application and is aware of these requirements.