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Leadership and
the Good Life Hub

The Leadership and the Good Life Hub focuses on expanding the Life Worth Living (LWL) network to both Leadership Studies programs and those with a focus on leadership in the curriculum. The LWL network is an initiative of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. Our Hub aims to connect educators around the world interested in innovative, meaningful and effective curricula on leadership. We work to achieve this through: new instructor outreach, continuing education for LWL instructors (integrating leadership studies and LWL curricula concepts), creating and sharing resources for leadership educators to employ LWL concepts and to develop LWL classes at their institutions, and convening LWL conferences and continuing education activities within leadership studies.

Learn more about the Live Worth Living Project

Summer 2025
"Leadership and the Good Life" Conference

More Information

Life Worth Living (LWL): The Leadership Anthology Project - Dr. Zachary Wooten, West Chester University, Honors College, Dr. Matthew Pierlott, West Chester University, Philosophy. The 4 Key Principles of LWL Pedagogy: 1. Pursuit of Existential Meaning, 2. Commitment to Truth-Seeking Pluralism, 3. First-Person Engagement, 4. Participation in a Community of Practice. Leadership & the Good Life - What makes a good life? What does it mean to live a flourishing life? What does leadership have to do with a life well lived? Leadership and the Good Life, a 'Life Worth Living' course is designed to: Have students engage with various philisophical and spiritual traditions, Feature visits from contemporary practitioners who live out these traditions and take on leadership roles in their communities, Relate reprensentative texts to the role of a leader in cultivating a good life for one's individual benefit as well as for the sake of a community, Utilize a flexible, inclusive and interdisciplinary approach, Pay special attention to issues of religious privilege, inter-tradition (and non-tradition) dialogue, and spiritual expression and influence. The Leadership Anthology Project: Students create a leadership anthology highlighting campus leaders and in the wider community. The Anthology aims to celebrate community leaders who enrich the lives of others and inform emerging leaders of exemplars in their midst. The activity links leadership theory and practice, encourages conversations around living life well, and fosters appreciation for campus and community members. Elements of the Assignment: Step 1: Students reflect on who around them demonstrates the qualities of a leader and request an interview. Step 2: Students interview their selected leader. Potential Questions include: What is leadership? How would you describe the way that you lead? According to you, what does it mean for live... to go well? (What is important in terms of life's circumstances). to be led well? (What do we need to do in order to lead a life worth living?). to feel good? (and does it matter? Might the life worth living be miserable?) What reasons and/or motivations do you have to live a good life? What resources do you utilize to lead a good life? As a leader, to whom are you responsible for living life well? As a leader, there are times that we fall short. What do you do when you make a mistake or fail to live life well? Step 3: Students compose a 500-1,000 word 'feature article' about their leader from their interview notes and submit for peer review. Step 4: Students submit a short reflection paper addressing how their interviewed leader's understanding of leadership and vision of the good life relates to their own. Step 5: Students revise 'feature article' after peer review and submit a final draft. Step 6: Students format and publish a WCU Leadership & the Good Life Anthology from the 'featured articles'. Step 7: Students celebrate and recognize their interviewees at the WCU Leadership & the Good Life Anthology reception. Step 8: Students work in designated groups to compose a sociological synthesis group paper, identifying major themes, gaps, and contradictions. Our Goals: The interpersonal and collaborative nature of this extended assignment will help students: clarify their understanding of what it means to be a leader, and deepen their appreciation of differing visions of the good life with an interfaith mindset. Assessment Results: Students reported clear gains for Goal 2. The biggest win is that course exposed students to ordinary people putting their beliefs into practice with a vision of how to live well. Student excitement for the course centers on this dimension. Additionally, we saw changes toward an interfaith mindset reflected in student attitudes. Want to learn more about LWL? Contact Info: Dr. Matthew Pierlott mpierlott@wcupa.edu, Dr. Zach Wooten zwooten@wcupa.edu. wcupa.edu/leadershiphub, Thanks! Special appreciation for support goes to: Interfaith America, for their Campus Innovation Grant, Yale Center for Faith and Culture and the Life Worth Living initiative.

Dr. Zachary Wooten and Dr. Matthew Pierlott presented the "Good Life across Generations" assignment at the Association of Leadership Educators' Annual Conference.

This poster provides an example of an innovative service-learning assignment in a class entitled, Leadership and the Good Life. Using a philosophical approach to leadership studies, students investigate what it means to live a good life and how to navigate conflicting visions of the good life in community. Students also consider the resources, pitfalls, and challenges of various visions of leadership and the good life. Students explore readings, listen to guest speakers, engage in group discussions, and participate in a dialogical and intergenerational service learning experience. About the Assignment: For this assignment, students were paired with and interviewed an older adult from The Hickman Friends Senior Community of West Chester. Alternatively, students could choose to interview an older adult from their sphere of influence. The purpose of this interview was to gain a unique perspective on leadership and what it means to live a good life. By cultivating intergenerational dialogue, students at the beginning of their adult lives benefitted from the wisdom of adults with more life experience. The university's Center for Civic Engagement and Social Impact financially supported a student who took the course previously to help with the coordination of the project. Throughout this project, students conducted two interviews to investigate the older adults vision of leadership and the good life. Through these interviews, students continued to refine their own definitions of leadership and what it means to live a good life. After the interviews, the students reflected on their interviewees' perspectives and composed a feature article and gifted it to the interviewees. Want to learn more about the Good ife method within leadership education? contact Contact Dr. Zachary Wooten at zwooten@wcupa.edu

Dr. Zachary Wooten and Emma Dunham” presented the “Good Life across Generations” assignment at the Association of Leadership Educators’ Annual Conference.

About the Life Worth Living Network - Video

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The Life Worth Living Network offers fellowships to encourage undergraduate education on enduring questions about the shape of flourishing life. We connect faculty and graduate students like you, who seek to design and facilitate courses that equip students for the lifelong process of discerning the good life. Together, we envision an educational landscape in which students and faculty learn alongside each other how to ask and respond to life’s biggest questions.

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Fellowship Opportunities

Faculty fellowship opportunities Graduate Student fellowship opportunities

About the team

Matt Pierlott Headshot

Matt Pierlott

  • Associate Professor of Philosophy
  • Philosophy
  • BAnderson Hall, Room 224
  • Email Matt Pierlott
  • Phone: 610-436-2429

I came to West Chester University in 2005. In 2010 I was invited to teach a course in the HON Seminar Program, "Ideas of Freedom," and later another course on “The Concept of God.” I had already become familiar with the vibrant community of students through colleagues, like Dr. Ruth Porritt, but this was my first experience in the classroom with some of them. I truly enjoyed the engaging discussions from thoughtful individuals across varied majors. Even more, I was impressed with the positive, supportive and constructive interactions among the students.

In 2012, I joined the Honors Council and teamed up with Dr. Tischio in offering the HON 490: Capstone courses. It is such a privilege to work with the students one-on-one and in our group working sessions to realize their visions. So many students have shared with me their passions and their developed ideas to serve their community. It continues to be a tremendously rewarding experience.

As an undergrad at the University of Scranton, I also took part in a program in which a small cohort of varied majors took one or two classes together each semester. That experience was so important to me, and I am thrilled that our program has a similar model. But what is truly rare about our Honors College is the focus on leadership and service, and the carefully designed curriculum that provides the skills and opportunities to get out of the class and make a difference.

Zachary Wooten Headshot

Zachary Wooten, Ph.D.

Teaching in the Honors College at WCU is one of the greatest joys of my life. I am thankful to learn from both my colleagues and students, and I am glad to belong to a community committed to leadership, service, scholarship, and civic engagement. My teaching, research, and other scholarly inquiry focuses on interfaith leadership, ethics and moral decision-making, grief and crisis leadership, self-awareness and development, visions of human flourishing, and leadership theory. I love helping students develop confidence and cheering them on as they work to strengthen their communities.

I also teach religious studies courses for the Department of Philosophy and serve as the Director for WCU's Interfaith, Meaning-Making, and Spirituality Project. I am currently leading three grant-funded research projects exploring: 1) religious leadership on TikTok; 2) interfaith leadership amongst hospital chaplains during the COVID-19 pandemic; and 3) the grief experiences of undergraduate students considering the climate crisis. I serve on WCU's Undergraduate Research Council, the Council for Diversity, Inclusion and Academic Excellence, and the project planning team for Yale's Center for Faith and Culture related to expanding the "Life Worth Living" network.

Haley McDevitt Headshot

Haley McDevitt, M.B.A. candidate

I am a proud alumna of West Chester University, graduating class of 2020. I earned my B.S. of Marketing, minor in Civic and Professional Leadership and Honors Seminar certificate. My favorite course (and one that changed my life's trajectory) was Leadership and the Good Life where we dissected the meaning of "the good life" through the lenses of different religions, philosophies, and worldviews. I first took the course in Fall of 2018 and later joined Dr. Wooten in 2019 - 2020 as a Leadership Studies Fellow. Nothing fascinates me more than understanding human connection and existence. For this reason, it's no surprise that I run my own wedding photography business. I get to document arguably one of the most vulnerable and meaningful periods of human beings' lives. During my time here as a graduate student and research assistant, Dr. Wooten and I will be examining the intersections between North American religiosity and TikTok, and how the social media platform impacts societal views of leadership within North American Christianity.

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