The University of Findlay’s College of Education will host an education symposium at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11, in the Alumni Memorial Union. Betty Siegel, Ph.D., will deliver a presentation based on her book “Becoming an Invitational Leader: A New Approach to Professional and Personal Success,” co-authored with William Purkey, Ph.D.

The symposium is free, and a certificate of attendance will be provided.

Invitational leadership is based upon the principles of trust, respect, optimism and intentionality. Addressing the total educational environment, it is a process for communicating caring and appropriate messages intended to summon forth the realization of human potential as well as to identify and change those forces that defeat and destroy potential.

The model, founded by Purkey and Siegel, has been successfully applied in numerous fields, including higher education, K-12 administration and teaching, corporate management, public administration, hospital administration, nursing, government, military, not-for-profit, human resources, counseling and related helping professions.

Siegel, the first woman to head an institution in the 35-unit University System of Georgia, and the longest-serving woman president of a public college or university in the nation, was president of Kennesaw State University from 1981 until 2006. She now serves as president emeritus and Distinguished Chair of Leadership, Ethics and Character at Kennesaw State.

As an internationally and nationally known lecturer and motivational speaker on leadership, educational issues and the concerns of women, she has delivered hundreds of keynote addresses.

She received her Ph.D. from Florida State University, an M.Ed. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a B.A. from Wake Forest University and an A.A. from Cumberland College.