ACTE Announces Erickson as 2022 NextLevel Postsecondary CTE Leadership Fellow

Alexandria, VA—Today, the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) announced Justin Erickson of Florida as a Fellow for the 2022 NextLevel Postsecondary CTE Leadership Program, sponsored by ECMC Foundation and powered by ACTE (formerly known as the Postsecondary Leadership Success Program at ACTE – sponsored by ECMC Foundation). Seventeen fellows were selected for the 2022-2023 cohort. The NextLevel Fellowship provides professional and career growth opportunities to the next generation of leaders in postsecondary CTE programs through a nationally-recognized program that is engaging, individualized, and memorable.

Justin Erickson is the Assistant Director of Manatee Technical College in Bradenton, Florida (USA).  Justin began as an engineering and manufacturing instructor over 15 years ago, then shifted to a career as an electro-mechanical engineer for an automation company designing, fabricating, and assembling new products and test processes covering multiple industries. Currently, he works alongside the staff at Manatee Technical offering quality high wage, high demand technical training programs associated with the current demands and trends of the local workforce. Justin received his Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Art at Eckerd College and his Master’s Degree in Career and Technical Education from University of South Florida.

This is ACTE’s fourth cohort of postsecondary CTE professionals in leadership development activities. Through this program, fellows build their leadership abilities as they work alongside peer professionals and an experienced mentor in this year-long professional development experience. Fellows also elevate their interpersonal skills and capacity to communicate, collaborate, network, problem solve and use time and resources effectively. The core capstone project is to identify a professional objective to address in each fellows’ institution and carry it out to realize a lasting impact. This program is intended to develop the organizational leadership and management skills of postsecondary CTE professionals, with an emphasis on addressing the needs of underserved populations. The NextLevel Fellowship also includes a research study to help determine what efforts best contribute to leadership development among postsecondary CTE professionals and the creation of resources that can be widely distributed to support others in the field.

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