2026 Program:
Stockholm, Sweden
Our Program
Working with partner institutions and sourcing mentor-leaders, NSLI connects Scholars with untapped, impactful educational opportunities, inspiring mentors and introduces them to successful organizations leading in challenging real-world contexts.
Cultural Immersion
A hallmark of our program is cultural immersion. In order to appreciate the similarities and differences within the Nordics, we discuss the nuances of what 'Nordic' means in terms of values, practices, and governance with various stakeholders across the various countries.​​
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Collaboration
Workshops and experiential activities explore the challenges and possibilities inherent in teamwork, fostering both leadership and collaboration skills.
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Leadership Training
The program trains the next generation of American leaders with Nordic perspectives. NSLI recognizes that leadership is a participatory act and takes practice. The program features small group learning with close peer work, and unique and potent trainings outside of the Academy with experts from a variety of fields.
Design Thinking (DT) & Post-Mortem Evaluations
The program employs design thinking pedagogy across all its operations. Scholars use DT tools to reflect on each program component and are active post-program evaluators - assisting in the iteration and improvement of the NSLI program.
Why Sweden?
The Nordic region is a global leader in sustainability, trust-based leadership, and innovation. The Pilot Program takes scholars into Stockholm, a model for Viable Cities—urban centers designed for a sustainable future. The program features innovative startup site visits, workshops with Nordic leadership and governance experts, and discussions with high level Swedish leaders and entrepreneurs.
Our 2025 Pilot Progam
Conversations centered on sustainability transitions, governance design, innovation systems, public–private collaboration, and long-term societal resilience. Read more about the impact it had on our scholars.
In 2025, Nordic Scholars participated in an immersive leadership experience across Stockholm, engaging with senior figures from public service, finance, defense, entrepreneurship, and national innovation agencies including Vinnova and Viable Cities.
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Through site visits, facilitated dialogues, shared meals, and structured reflection, scholars examined Swedish governance, sustainability transitions, and innovation culture — while also interrogating their own assumptions about leadership, responsibility, and institutional design.
The program combined cross-sector engagement with deep personal and collective reflection, emphasising adaptability, relational judgment, and multidisciplinary leadership capacity.
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Each cohort’s experience is intentionally unique, shaped by context, partners, and the scholars themselves.
Partnerships & Collaborators
Drawing on the collaborative spirit that has led to the success of the countries on which we focus our research and in which the scholars will train, the NSLI program is formed through international collaboration with partners across academia, industry, and government.
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Our partnerships will enable us to deliver a unique and highly curated program of cross-cultural interaction, collaborative problem solving, and human centered innovation. Some of our partners and collaborators include:
PROGRAM JOURNEY
NSLI is designing an educational journey in the Nordic leadership milieu. Educationally, we move toward emerging theories of leadership for sustainability where work is collaborative, as exemplified by the very institutions with whom NSLI collaborates.​
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Scholars will immerse themselves in the similar yet different cultures of the Nordics. It is a program designed for those dedicated to a career in leadership; those whose open-minded nature, original thinking and insatiable curiosity call them to service and to the NSLI model.
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The program leverages the deep investments the Nordic countries have made in their institutions with core values of inclusive innovation; sustainable development; human-centred AI, technology, and design; collaborative and representative policy, and environmental conservation.
Nordic Scholars will be immersed in and work on projects with Nordic institutions whose work is cutting-edge in each of these areas.
