The Leadership Louisville Center is a nationally-recognized resource for individuals and organizations who strive to go beyond being individually successful to being truly significant. We are a nonprofit organization in Louisville, Kentucky, serving as the region’s hub for talent development, relationship building, and community engagement.

Leadership Louisville Center 2019-2025 Vision

Click to view our strategic vision, grounded in the mission to inspire and equip leaders to be better and do better.

Our purpose: to inspire and equip leaders to be better and do better.

Our innovative, world-class curriculum and experiential learning opportunities are available for all levels of leadership. No matter where you are located in the world, we can help you build stronger leaders. The Center is the place where leaders can connect with diverse networks, build understanding, and take action to drive positive social and professional impact.

The Center carries out this mission through civic programs, leadership courses, professional development courses, and events designed to inspire, challenge and connect people at all levels of leadership development. Find out which program or course is right for you.

Our headquarters at 707 W. Main St. in the heart of downtown Louisville, Kentucky provides a community convening space for collaboration and the exchange of ideas.


Want to be in The Center?

The Leadership Louisville Center recognizes the importance of diversity – within our workforce, our supplier relationships, and our program participants.  Diversity is at the heart of our organization’s mission. See our Diversity and Inclusion Statement.

To foster and sustain vibrant, diverse community leadership, we invite all leaders and aspiring leaders to be in the Center. Our greatest potential for positive impact in the community comes from our ability to provide a perpetually replenishing supply of inspired and informed leaders. These leaders must be diverse and represent all aspects of our community. Our supporters and scholarship funds allow anyone, from the most powerful CEO to the most committed civic volunteer, access to our leadership training, expanded networks, and opportunities to make a difference.

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History of the Leadership Louisville Center

The Leadership Louisville Center was started in 1979 when community leaders Wilson Wyatt, Barry Bingham, Nana Lampton, Henry Heuser Sr., Maurice D.S. Johnson and Charles Herd founded Leadership Louisville to ensure that Louisville’s future leaders would be knowledgeable about issues, well networked and passionate about the success of the community.

Today the Center continues to be guided by those founding principles. Businesses of all types and individuals at all career levels rely on the Center’s civic programs and professional development courses to gain self-confidence as leaders, expand their commitment to our community and develop a deeper understanding of issues with the potential to propel our region forward.

In 2011, the Leadership Louisville Center was recognized as one of the top seven community leadership programs in the U.S. in a benchmark study by the Center for Creative Leadership, the “gold standard” global provider of executive leadership education and research.