These questions came directly from the Cohort 2 informational webinar on May 26, 2026, and address:
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No. Seminars will occur in multiple cities across the country — including a few seminars in Baltimore — over the course of the 21-month program. This approach helps to distribute the travel burden across the cohort. In many cases, seminar locations often connect directly to specific themes, communities or systems that the cohort is actively exploring.
Site visits can help faculty better understand a Fellow's leadership in context. These visits explore a Fellow's work collaborations, engagement style and day-to-day environment. For Fellows in remote or hybrid roles: Faculty may join virtual meetings, connect with relevant colleagues or partners online, or catch moments of active engagement with stakeholders or collaborators. The goal of these visits is not to evaluate a workplace; it is to understand a Fellow's leadership environment and offer appropriate coaching.
Site visits occur after a Fellow has had time to build relationships with faculty, engage with the Fellowship content and develop their line-of-sight work. Participants will learn more about this timeline once their Fellowship begins.
Every Fellow participates in the program's Build Your Own Experience component. A Fellow's personal goals and leadership trajectory — coupled with input from Fellowship staff — inform this personalized development opportunity. Fellows receive support to shape an experience that deepens a skill, broadens a perspective, builds a relationship or advances an area of practice that matters to their development. This support — including financial resources — helps Fellows implement their agreed-upon Build Your Own Experience activities.
Many Fellows hold multiple roles across different systems and sectors. A participant typically identifies one primary role for their line-of-sight work, but the program recognizes that leadership learning occurs across multiple spaces. Fellows are welcome to bring in experiences, tensions and insights from different parts of their professional life.
Yes. Job and role transitions are common and even expected during the 21-month program, and the Fellowship is designed to support a participant's growth over the arc of their career. If a Fellow switches roles, they will need their new organization's support — including being afforded the necessary time and space — to fully engage in the program.
To be eligible for the Fellowship, a graduate student must remain employed in a relevant role and continue to meet the program's full participation requirements, including seminar attendance, prep work, coaching and applied leadership work. Oftentimes, the demands of graduate school directly conflict with the Fellowships's expectations. For this reason, the program does not accept full-time graduate students, and it encourages part-time graduate students to closely and critically evaluate the feasibility of juggling both opportunities at once.
Ideally, applicants should have the necessary organizational support, role stability and capacity to fully participate in the 21-month program. Individuals in grant-funded jobs or financially unstable work environments should carefully evaluate their fit for the Fellowship.
Because the program is cohort-based and rooted in relationships, attendance matters. That said, life happens. Fellows should share news of any participation disruptions as early as possible. Faculty and staff will then work with the Fellows to navigate these unexpected circumstances with care.
The Fellowship is built as an in-person experience. The relational, experiential and community-building dimensions of the program are core to the learning model and not easily replicated in a virtual setting.
The Fellowship's application materials identify all seminar dates, and Fellows are expected to attending all of these sessions (barring any family emergencies) over the 21-month program. Accordingly, there is no set number of "allowed" absences. Missing a seminar— even skipping a session here and there — is not built into the program model.
There is some flexibility. A number of factors — including the co-design process, organizational partnerships and locations of Fellows — impact seminar locations. In many cases, seminar locations often connect directly to specific themes, communities or systems that the cohort is actively exploring.
No. Applicants must be between the ages of 24 and 31 when Cohort 2 begins in November 2026.
No. Applicants based abroad are not eligible for this cohort. The Fellowship is — by design — set up to support U.S. leaders who are working on domestic issues.
Possibly. The Fellowship considers a broad range of leadership roles — including operational, administrative and infrastructure roles — that contribute to equitable results for children, youth, families and communities. Individuals should use the application process to clearly connect their work to these larger outcomes.
Potentially, yes. The Fellowship seeks leaders whose work cuts across a wide range of systems and sectors to improve outcomes for children, youth, families and communities. Applicants should help reviewers understand how their work connects to these larger outcomes. Individuals who hold an unrelated "paying" job in addition to their volunteer work should ensure that both organizations will give them the necessary time off to participate in the Fellowship's seminars and related activities.
No. Leadership, in this context, is broadly framed. Applicants should be individuals who are exercising leadership, influence, initiative and accountability in their work — no senior titles required.
No single sector or field of work is excluded from this opportunity. The Fellowship includes leaders from nonprofits, government, philanthropy, advocacy, research, direct service, arts and culture, and more. The unifying factor across these leaders is a shared connection to improving outcomes for children, youth, families and communities.
Individuals enrolled in a full-time degree-granting program during the Fellowship term are ineligible for this opportunity. Part-time students who feel that they can still meet all participation requirements during the 21-month Fellowship should discuss their situation with the program before applying.
Cohort 2 will consist of 14 Fellows.
No, it does not. Nominations and recommendations help people learn about the opportunity, but all applicants — including nominated applicants and independent applicants — go through the same review process.
Supervisors are not contacted during the early stages of the review process. Once Fellows are selected, the program lead will reach out to supervisors to discuss participation expectations and organizational commitments before the Fellowship begins.
Yes, generally. References are most useful when they can offer a distinct perspective on an applicant's leadership, work and potential. Adding a new voice is preferable to repeating what the nominator already shared.
Strong applicants come in a lot of different forms, but they tend to share a few things. They have:
Cohort composition also matters. The review process looks at how a mix of candidates can challenge and support one another and what each individual can bring to the Fellowship. This can result in strong applicants looking quite different from one another.
There is no formal nomination requirement. Individuals can nominate others. Individuals can also directly apply to the Fellowship.
Yes. Building relationships across cohorts and with the broader Fellowship network is an intentional part of the program experience.
Not negatively. Individuals who are connected to alumni or current Fellows are welcome to apply. The review process will assess each applicant on their own, individual merits.
No. This opportunity no longer includes grant funding for organizations.
The Fellowship recognizes that leaders work in many different structures, including independent consulting, entrepreneurial and contract roles. Accordingly, the program can accommodate modified site visits and coaching to better reflect a Fellow's actual leadership environment. Before applying, interested individuals who fit in this category should reach out to the program to talk through what their participation would look like.
Yes. References are required.
Yes. The review process considers all submitted materials. Individuals who submit a longer video should consider adding a brief note calling attention to key content and explaining how it relates to the application or leadership experience under review.
Yes. The Annie E. Casey Foundation has posted the webinar recording, slides included, on its YouTube channel. More information is also available on its Rising Leaders webpage.
Information about a potential Cohort 3 will occur after the conclusion of Cohort 2 in August 2028. Plans for Cohort 3 and all future cohorts will depend on organizational decisions, resources and program evaluation.
No. Many organizations in the social sector have relationships with the Foundation. This connection, on its own, is not a conflict of interest.
Consulting work with a Casey-related entity does not automatically disqualify an individual from the program. Applicants should be honest when asked to disclose relevant relationships during the review process.
Fellows must fully meet all participation requirements throughout the 21-month program. Part-time students who are confident they can fulfill all participation requirements should contact the program directly to discuss their situation before applying. As a reminder: Individuals are ineligible for the Fellowship if they are full-time students enrolled in a degree-granting program.
Contact David Navarro.
Get more information and the application for Cohort 2 at www.aecf.org/risingleaders.
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