Teaching:

Dr. Hastings’s teaching focuses on helping students understand leadership as both a scholarly field and a practice that can be intentionally developed. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in leadership theory and leadership development, using experiential and research-informed approaches that help students apply leadership concepts to individuals, teams, organizations, and communities. Dr. Hastings also mentors graduate students and emerging scholars as they develop their identities as leadership researchers, educators, and practitioners.

Research:

Dr. Hastings’s research examines how leadership capacity develops and is sustained across individuals, relationships, and communities. Her scholarship centers on three interconnected areas: leadership mentoring and generativity, leadership identity and development, and community leadership systems. Across these areas, she uses mixed methods, longitudinal, and measurement-focused approaches to better understand how developmental relationships shape leaders across the lifespan and how communities can move beyond individual leader training to build systems that recruit, develop, mentor, and sustain leadership across generations. A complete list of Dr. Hastings’s scholarly research is available on Google Scholar.

Extension:

Dr. Hastings’s Extension work translates leadership research into practical strategies that strengthen people, organizations, and communities across Nebraska. Through Rural Prosperity Nebraska within Nebraska Extension, she works with educators, community leaders, and organizations to strengthen community leadership systems, improve leadership and mentoring programs, and build capacity for leadership development and transfer across generations, ensuring that leadership development is intentionally cultivated and sustained within Nebraska communities.