About CLF

Our story

As stallworths in the DC Community, the late Drs. Rudolph and Janette Hoston Harris believed we should teach and mentor youth and created several programs throughout the city to achieve that goal.

Consortium Leadership Foundation’s development was twofold. The brainchild of Junie Janette Harris, owner of District Consortium Inc., who was inspired by her parents the late Drs. Rudolph and Janette Hoston Harris. “As a young person, my mother the encouraged me to be a leader and a visionary.  She said you have to take your dream and turn it into reality. She always supported the non-traditional work that I did and assisted me with getting into programs that would support my development.”

The Consortium Leadership Foundation’s mission is to create confident leaders and to ensure they are successful. We specialize in creatives and those who are interested in the non-traditional fields of entertainment. These are the ones who are often left out and overlooked.
“My mother not only encouraged me, but she encouraged everyone around me and anyone who she taught or touched across the globe, to follow their dreams,” said Ms. Harris. “She took the lead in many of the organizations to which she belonged, raised funds, pushed new programs, and made sure the organizations’ history and legacy were intact. When I first dreamed of this foundation, I thought of my family and their love and desire to see us do well. This is the basis of CLF.”
Drs. Rudolph and Janette Hoston Harris
Taking a page from her parents’ book, Ms. Harris further developed the foundation out of a simple request from students and recent college graduates who continually asked for her for guidance on how to achieve their goals.
Noticing a trend of young people not being confident with decisions or direction, we surveyed a select group on what their needs were to help them be successful. The feedback we received was personalized leadership training – they were not confident in themselves to be in charge and help with goals and visualization – they were visual learners and a need for more immersion into the industry to get a better understanding of how it operates.

Initially we spent as much time building and helping with the growth of the individual as we did teach about the industry. The need for more individual leadership training along with skills development began and implemented in our existing programs in all areas of work.

This foundation was built to partner with existing organizations to infuse leadership training as part of the curriculum and enhance individual and immersion programs.

As a public and private partnership, we also created opportunities to add funding and assistance to select programs and manage the Harris Scholars Program.

The Consortium’s belief begins with taking action, teaching our students to be confident leaders, and inspiring them to create a productive future. We encourage our students to Take the Lead!

Achieve

“I didn’t learn to be quiet when I had an opinion. The reason they knew who I was is because I told them.”

Ursula Burns, Chairman and former CEO of Xerox, the first African American woman to head a Fortune 500 company

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