Ameritas Emerging Leaders Academy is designed to develop leadership skills for advanced undergraduate students.

Each year, a cohort of 20 is selected and commits to professional training one day a month for seven months. Participants begin the academy with an understanding of their CliftonStrengths® and how to best use them for personal growth and effective leadership. Subsequent sessions include a breakdown of the Insurance Industry, change management, effective communication and innovation.

As a part of the innovation training, the cohort will spend the last two months of the academy working on prototype solutions for the challenges affecting the insurance industry. Project coaching will be available to help participants in developing their prototypes. Final prototypes will be presented to Ameritas senior leadership during graduation.

This program is free to selected students.

Held One Friday a month September 2025-May 2026

Apply today for the 2025-26 Ameritas Emerging Leaders Academy

Learning Objectives

Program Facilitators

Dr. Kathy Castle

Director of Business and Professional Communication & Associate Professor of Practice in Communication Studies, UNL

Castle earned a Master of Arts in Organizational Communication and a Ph.D. in Interpersonal and Family Communication. She joined UNL in 2000 and has drawn from her expertise in organizational, interpersonal and family communication in developing and teaching courses for undergraduate students across campus. Castle has won numerous teaching awards and The Pearson Award for Technology and Instructions from the Association for Business Communication presented in Dublin, Ireland.

Heather Clemens

Ameritas Actuarial Faculty Fellow, Seacrest Teaching Fellow, Assistant Director and Associate Professor of Practice in Actuarial Science

Heather Clemens received her bachelor of science in business administration with a major in actuarial science from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She also has a master of arts in leadership from Bellevue University and over 18 years experience in the actuarial science field.

She served as a consulting actuary for Compass Health Analytics, Inc., in Portland, Maine, where she assisted nonprofit managed care organizations with claim liability analysis, rate development, budget development and financial monitoring. Prior to that she was an associate actuary at WellPoint, Inc., in South Portland, Maine, where she served as the Maine valuation lead responsible for monthly valuation and forecasting of incurred claims and other liabilities.

Dr. Aaron Duncan

Director of Speech and Debate & Associate Professor of Practice in Communication Studies, UNL

Duncan joined UNL in 2005, and his areas of expertise are rhetoric and argumentation. During his time as director of speech & debate, the Nebraska team has won over 100 college tournaments, seven Big Ten Conference Tournament Challenge championships and placed consistently in the top 10 in the nation in both speech and debate. His students have won multiple individual national championships. As a competitor in speech and debate for Nebraska Wesleyan University, Duncan won over 50 tournaments at the collegiate level and was named to the 2003 National All-American Speech Team. His writing has appeared in publications including The New Republic, Business Insider, and Quartz.

Dr. Samantha Fairclough

Associate Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Associate Professor of Practice in Management, UNL

Fairclough earned her Ph.D. in management from the University of Oxford in 2009. Originally from the United Kingdom, she has been teaching since then and has more than 10 years of experience as an environmental lawyer and an entrepreneur. She creates, markets and organizes classes, competitions, seminars, conferences and networking events, as well as mentors students about business ideas.

Dr. Tim Hodges

Executive Director of Clifton Strengths Institute and Assistant Professor of Practice in Management, UNL

Hodges leads the Clifton Strengths Institute is a management professor in the College of Business, and a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach. He works with individuals and teams to maximize their strengths and increase performance, engagement, and well-being in their education, career, and throughout their lives. He leads research in strengths development, employee selection and employee engagement with clients in education and business. He earned a bachelor’s in agribusiness, master’s in leadership education and Ph.D. in business from Nebraska.

Dr. Sam Nelson

Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Associate Professor of Practice in Management, UNL

Nelson earned his Ph.D. in management from Nebraska in 2011. He joined the College of Business in 2012 and has directed the Center for Entrepreneurship since 2015. Nelson was integral in the design of the university's entrepreneurship curriculum and teaches actively in the program. His research interests include corporate persona, entrepreneurship education and psychological capital.

Dr. Steve Olson

President, Generative Consulting & Visiting Professor of Leadership and Innovation Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University, California

Olson has been a pioneering leader in executive education for more than 25 years. He has trained and coached more than 2,000 executives in the United States, Europe and Latin America. His teaching specialties include Innovation, Leadership and Ethics, and he is widely published in leading academic journals including the Harvard Business Review. He teaches innovation, leadership and ethics in MBA, Executive MBA and Executive Education programs. He also has done extensive consulting work with major corporations as well as local and international nonprofit groups.

Susan Vagts

Director of the Actuarial Science Program, Ameritas Actuarial Faculty Fellow, David P. Hayes Chair of Actuarial Science & Associate Professor of Practice in Actuarial Science, UNL

Vagts earned her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with minors in actuarial science and business from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She came to the College of Business in 1999 with more than 8 years of experience in the insurance industry. Vagts worked as a pricing and product development actuary primarily in life insurance, fixed and variable annuities, and disability income insurance. She now serves as director of the Actuarial Science Program. Her teaching interests include Insurance and Individual Risk Management, Theory of Interest, and Actuarial Applications in Practice.