CALL is a three-year leadership development program for motivated leaders who are currently (or seek to be) living, working, and leading in the TFA Appalachia region. Members will serve as leaders in their communities, spanning designated counties in West Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Northeast Tennessee, and Eastern Kentucky. Members will individually and collectively contribute toward TFA Appalachia’s 2030 goal: By 2030, twice as many students in Central Appalachian communities will achieve postsecondary readiness and success, indicating that they are on a path to economic mobility and a future filled with possibility.

To reach this goal, we invite you to join us as Lab members, a robust team of leaders across all sectors and industries who will drive toward impact in our Appalachian communities.

Visit the About the Lab section of our website to learn more.

Visit the Core Pillars section of our website to learn more.

Lab members will live and work within the TFA Appalachia region. TFA Appalachia’s region represents designated counties in Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, Northeast Tennessee, and Southwest Virginia. Eligible counties are detailed on the hyperlinks for each state.

We invite community leaders, including but not limited to TFA alumni, to apply. Visit the Eligibility section of our website for more information.

The Lab is a three-year leadership development opportunity.

We anticipate 5-10 CALL positions will be awarded in 2023.

There is no preferred career path, sector, or industry for accepted members. As part of our systems change orientation, we maintain that the region will require a robust pipeline of top talent across many sectors, industries, and career paths in order to achieve both TFA Appalachia’s 2030 goal and the region’s aspired bright future. We are excited to recruit seasoned leaders from any sector or industry who will refine and act on personal theories of change in pursuit of our region’s 2030 goal.

If a Lab member becomes unemployed during the fellowship term, TFA Appalachia will review each situation on a case-by-case basis in partnership with the fellow, acknowledging that the program requires participants to work in the TFA Appalachia region.

The Lab requires that participants live and work within the TFA Appalachia region. If members relocate during the fellowship term, to remain in the program they must relocate to another county within the TFA Appalachia region. If members do not fulfill the fellowship term for any reason, they will keep only the financial award amount disbursed to-date. No further awards will be issued if the fellow does not fulfill the program term.

Part-time employment circumstances will be reviewed for eligibility on a case-by-case basis. Between professional and community leadership roles, successful Lab applicants will be able to demonstrate the following:

• Equipped with a vision for how members would uniquely contribute to the TFAA 2030 goal

• Professionally ready to refine and act on a personal theory of change in pursuit of the TFAA 2030 goal

• Prepared to anticipate and articulate their own leadership development needs

• Focused on and engaged with their community within the TFAA geographic region

As part of the Lab’s goal for members to build nuanced understandings of issues and opportunities affecting at least 12 communities acros Central Appalachia, the quarterly convenings will rotate across different geographies in the four-state TFA Appalachia region. Interested in showing off your community? You may even have the opportunity to serve as a “host” member and have the cohort come to the community hwere you live and/or work!

Generally, the quarterly convening dates are determined three months in advance based on popular vote across the Lab cohort. Convening dates typically take place on either a Friday or a Saturday.

Yes, Lab members are responsible for covering their travel costs associated with the in-person quarterly convenings. However, if the distance between a member’s home and the convening location is at least 2 hours, members are eligible for a travel reimbursement of up to $200 per convening.

In-person commitment: Across the three-year membership term, members are expected to attend each quarterly, in-person convening day (four days per year). Given that the site for the convenings rotates across our four-state geography, there may be convening locations that will require you to stay overnight before and/or after the convening date.

Asynchronous commitment: Outside of the quarterly in-person convenings, members are expected to be asynchronously pursuing experiential, social, and formal learning in alignment with a personalized learning plan (which the member will co-create alongside TFA Appalachia staff). Members are expected to participate in a quarterly, virtual 1:1 check-in with a TFA Appalachia coach to process, share reflections, course correct as needed, etc (four virtual check-ins per year). There is no hard-and-fast requirement for number of hours each week or month that members will spend on their learning plans, as we acknowledge the inherent ebb-and-flow of schedules and busy seasons within members’ personal and professional communities; however, we do expect that members are making meaningful progres on their learning plans between check-ins.