Posted on May 22, 2025
When Jen Skelly was debating whether to enhance her credentials with a general studies master’s degree or focus on a curriculum that would benefit her work at Penn-Mar as Director of PA Operations, she chose the latter.
That decision led to a two-year journey with the ANCOR Foundation Leadership Academy founded to nurture emerging leaders who are building their careers in services and supports for people with disabilities.
Jen Skelly poses with her diploma alongside Cindy Kauffman, Senior Advisor at ANCOR and Gabrielle Sedor, COO and Foundation Director at ANCOR
Jen immersed herself in the training and mentoring opportunities the Academy offered, cultivating different areas of expertise and thought leadership designed to build influence and reputation in the national intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) community as the next generation of leaders.
At the April ANCOR Connect ’25 Conference in San Diego, CA, she successfully graduated from the program and, in addition, was asked to develop and co-present a seminar session entitled, “Reimagining Leadership Development; Insight from the ANCOR Foundation Leadership Academy class of 2025.”
“After the pandemic, I began thinking in earnest about where I was going with my career,” said Jen. “Ultimately I chose the Leadership Academy, as my goal is to foster continuous growth for myself, the people we support, and the team members who support them.”
That commitment led to two years of online training, including professional mentorship, monthly seminars, and “culture circles” where each participant would take a turn leading a conversation to show how they were putting into practice the previous month’s learning.
The seminar topics covered policy and regulation implications; managing conflict; change management; leading in times of crisis; funding and revenue development; finance management essentials; effective Board of Directors; effective executive leadership partners; and DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion).
At the completion of the training, participants were required to create a Capstone Project on a topic of their choice. Jen chose to focus on “something that would directly benefit Penn-Mar,” developing a project she presented in February to ANCOR leaders and mentors entitled, “Advancing and Sustaining Leadership Development Activities at Penn-Mar.”
The very next day she was contacted by organizers at The ANCOR Foundation with an invitation to co-present her Capstone Project at the ANCOR Conference in April.
The initiative for Jen’s project focus came from her experience as a co-chair on Penn-Mar’s Belonging Council. “It helped me gain a lot of confidence and I learned a lot about DEI initiatives. It’s exciting to work with the Council on goals to ensure that everyone feels like they belong and are respected, valued, heard, and empowered.”
It was also based on Penn-Mar’s leadership development work with team members through Effective Manager and Coach Approach programs. “My goal was to build on this foundation by figuring out a way to not just give training but more importantly to sustain it. I wanted our program to become more intentional and consistent across all our programs and departments.”
Jen presented her leadership training ideas during one of Penn-Mar’s strategic planning sessions in 2024.
“Our CEO Greg Miller realized we needed to define and organize our commitment to continuing professional development and align our related activities to support that commitment,” according to Jen. “We didn’t want to be bouncing back and forth with great leadership ideas, books, and philosophies. Rather, we wanted to be intentional as an organization, agreeing on a foundation for professional leadership and showing what it looks like in alignment with our core values. Our end goal is to continually sustain and enhance that philosophy.”
The work continues, formalizing and expanding a professional development model for the future that will ultimately impact more team members.
“I am so thankful to Penn-Mar for supporting my own professional development which has helped me grow as a leader,” said Jen. “I want to honor the organization by developing programs that support our team members to grow in their leadership capacity, which ultimately positively impacts the people that we support to live better, more meaningful lives.”