UC San Diego Campus · La Jolla, California
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CaliBaja North American Leadership Academy
Inaugural Cohort · 2026-27
Application deadline: October 16, 2026 · 5:00 p.m.
Fellows Selection Notification: November 12, 2026
Program Duration: December 3, 2026, to October 31, 2027
months
Fellows, maximum
10 from the United States and 10 from Mexico
target age range
Cost per Fellow
*Bersin-Nathanson Fellowship: 10 full-tuition merit scholarships are planned for the inaugural cohort. Additional corporate sponsorships and philanthropic donations are being sought to cover the costs of additional merit scholarships.
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Why the Academy
The opportunity
CaliBaja is one of North America’s most dynamic cross-border regions, yet its most consequential challenges do not fit neatly within one jurisdiction, sector or profession. The Academy will equip an emerging generation of leaders to turn shared regional complexity into practical cooperation, public value and durable results.
The CaliBaja North American Leadership Academy is a selective, cohort-based experience for emerging leaders from San Diego and Imperial Counties and Baja California. Its curriculum combines rigorous leadership formation, North American policy analysis, cross-cultural fluency, immersive site learning and sustained peer collaboration.
Fellows learn with senior practitioners, scholars, business leaders and community voices on both sides of the border—and test ideas against the realities of institutions, communities and operating environments.
The central proposition is simple: CaliBaja’s future depends not only on better policies, but on leaders who can mobilize people across differences, work without formal authority and build coalitions capable of addressing problems no single institution can solve.
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How Fellows Learn
A hybrid curriculum combines faculty-led preparation, executive leadership formation, cross-cultural practice, site learning, regional cases, mentoring, and team-based capstone work.
A six-week Harvard online adaptive leadership course introduces the tools and practices developed by Professor Ronald Heifetz, reinforced through Academy coaching and reflection.
All Fellows successfully completing the Adaptive Leadership course will receive a certificate of completion from Harvard Online.
A hybrid workshop—combining online and in-person learning—facilitated by Professor
Alejandro Fernandez, Director of the Inclusive Leadership Institute at the C. T. Bauer College of
Business, University of Houston, and Professor Chandra Pathki, Co-Director of the Institute for
Leadership Research at the Rawls College of Business, Texas Tech University.
The workshop addresses behavioral ethics, leadership culture, moral courage, and AI ethics.
Fellows will participate in structured dialogue, case analysis, and peer reflection rather than passive lectures. Topics include psychological safety, whistleblowing, ethical culture design, the responsible use of emerging technologies, and the ethical cost of “winning.”
Ethical leadership is not about perfection. It is about developing the judgment and moral courage to make principled decisions when circumstances make doing so difficult.
A ½ -day workshop, facilitated by the National Conflict Resolution Center (NCRC), focuses on cross-cultural communication and conflict management, examining the differences between explicit, direct, rules-oriented communication and implicit, relationship-centered approaches with the goal of building trust, navigating disagreement and clarifying expectations more effectively in a cross-border context.
A ½ day workshop led by UC San Diego’s Design Lab focused on human centered design, non-linear problem solving and a framework focused on deep-user empathy, rapid prototyping and continuous iteration to spur innovative, practical solutions in a cross-border context.
― ― Program Architecture
LEARN
Faculty-led digital preparation and core reading
Experience
Binational meet-ups, site visits and stakeholder dialogue
Apply Knowledge
Cases, coaching, capstone work and a public symposium
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Curriculum Journey
The curriculum moves deliberately from a common leadership foundation to the economic, social, environmental and governance systems shaping CaliBaja. Each module asks Fellows to connect regional knowledge with the challenges of leading across borders.
01
Orientation, cohort formation, cross-cultural communication, geopolitical uncertainty, borderless design thinking and the Harvard adaptive-leadership course.
02
The history and political economy of the U.S.-Mexico relationship; border governance; infrastructure, mobility and collaborative leadership in a region with no single authority.
03
USMCA, Canada’s role, economic security, China, nearshoring and CaliBaja’s place within a more resilient continental economy.
04
A two-day, twin city learning site visit to examine R&D, product development, production and human capital connections between San Diego and Tijuana with an emphasis on advanced manufacturing and medical devices.
05
06
07
CaliBaja’s labor market depends on the daily movement of people across a border that also separates transportation systems, housing markets, public agencies, and training institutions. This module will examine these systems together and develop a practical intervention that improves access to opportunity without shifting costs onto communities that already face congestion, displacement, or long commutes.
08
The interaction in energy and water demands drive economic competiveness in the region as well as environmental sustainability. Transboundary governance, infrastructure finance, institutional accountability and leadership are required to sustain binational solutions.
09
Designing cross-sector responses to problems that fall between government, market and nonprofit jurisdictions, including the capital and partnerships needed to scale public value.
10
CaliBaja cases turn the region into the classroom
Workforce & Talent Retention
Tijuana River
SENTRI & Smart Border Innovation
Twin Ports & CBX
Lithium Valley & Clean Energy
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Apply
The Academy is seeking accomplished emerging leaders from business, state and local government, and civil society who want to help shape a more competitive, resilient, and connected CaliBaja region.
Who should apply?
Online application
Includes three short essays on a CaliBaja challenge, regional connection, and contribution/application.
Resume / CV
Recommendation
A letter with specific evidence of demonstrated leadership or leadership potential.
Employer support
Confirmation of support for the time commitment required across the 11-month program.
Application deadline: October 16, 2026 · 5:00 p.m. PT
Fellows Selection Notification: November 12, 2026
Program Duration: December 3, 2026, to October 31, 2027
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Cross-Cultural Communication
Effective cross-border leadership requires more than policy knowledge. Fellows learn to communicate, listen, negotiate, and build trust across different operating cultures.
Cross-cultural communication is a core leadership competency for Fellows operating in CaliBaja. The Academy will use customized training, facilitated dialogue, and reflection to help participants recognize how national, institutional, professional, and community cultures shape communication, trust, conflict, decision-making, and collaboration.
Cross-cultural practice begins at orientation and continues through site visits, cases, mentoring, peer collaboration, and binational capstone teams.
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Value Proposition
Fellows leave with more than expanded knowledge. They gain a practical leadership framework; deeper understanding of North America and the border region; firsthand exposure to communities, institutions and industries; and a durable binational network. They also develop the judgment to recognize whose voices are missing, distinguish technical problems from adaptive challenges, and build coalitions across competing interests.
The Academy creates a pipeline of leaders prepared to steward economic opportunity responsibly, strengthen democratic and civic cooperation, and advance solutions whose benefits are more broadly shared. The long-term return is a stronger leadership ecosystem—one capable of turning CaliBaja’s interdependence into a source of resilience, innovation and inclusive prosperity.
For donors and funders, the Academy is an investment in regional capacity. The cost per Fellow is $11,000, with 10 merit scholarships available through the Bersin-Nathanson Fellowship covering the full cost of tuition. Capstone projects are estimated to need $20,000 for each of the four groups of Fellows composed of five binational participants.
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Program Leadership & Partners
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Mentor
Mentors connect Fellows with practical perspective, candid feedback, and trusted relationships across sectors and jurisdictions. The mentoring experience is intended to complement-not replace-the Academy’s formal curriculum and capstone work.
Potential mentor contributions
We welcome senior leaders and practitioners from business, government, academia, philanthropy, and civil society with relevant CaliBaja or North American experience.
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Donor Recognition
The CaliBaja North American Leadership Academy is made possible thanks to the generous early support of the Bersin-Foster Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation-San Diego and the Alumbra Innovations Foundation.
