Linda Peek Schacht is leader in residence, associate professor of practice and strategic advisor to the dean in Lipscomb’s College of Leadership and Public Service. She also is the founding director of the Andrews Institute for Civic Leadership, now a part of the new College.
For forty years, she has advised government, business and non-profit leaders on communication and strategy. A veteran of the Carter White House press office, she has held the top communication positions for a national Presidential campaign, USA Today, the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate and the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.
Linda spent over a decade at The Coca-Cola Company in New York and Atlanta, serving three Chairmen and retiring as Vice President, Global Communications and Public Affairs Strategy. In addition to her media, public relations and corporate communications responsibilities, she represented the company at the World Economic Forum and oversaw research on the economic and public affairs impact of the company’s global investments, helping shape the emerging corporate social responsibility movement.
In 2002, Linda began her encore career in education as a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where she was affiliated with both the Center for Public Leadership and the Center for Business and Government. For the next four years, her workshops and research focused on leadership and communication. Concurrently, from 2004- 2008, Linda was the interim chair of the political and organizational communication department at Emerson College in Boston.
The academic and community programs of the Andrews Institute, which she launched as its first executive director in 2010, reflect her commitment to developing leaders for the common good at every stage of their careers. She has advised emerging, mid-career, and veteran leaders in both the Master’s in Civic Leadership program, in the Cable Executive Leadership Academy, and as adviser to the women’s leadership cluster for Cab!e. Linda has produced leadership training for Nashville Neighborhood leaders through the Office of the Mayor and for high school girls through Music City Girls Lead! She currently advises the Tennessee Accelerated Leadership Institute (emerging leaders), is a coach and presenter for LEAD Tennessee, the state’s award- winning leadership development initiative, and is a frequent presenter for Commissioner Leadership Institutes and the League of Cities.
Linda is a former Woodrow Wilson teaching fellow and a long-time board member of the International Women’s Media Foundation where she helped develop leadership training for women in media around the world. She is a board member of Athena International; Fifty Forward; Rock the Street Wall Street; and Centerstone Military Services. Since 2013, she has directed the Fellows program for the Global Action Summit. A frequent speaker and commentator on leadership, communication, and, in election years, politics, she is the recipient of three lifetime achievement awards for her career and her work in leadership development for women and girls: the 2012 NBJ Women of Influence Trailblazer award, the 2014 Athena Award, and the YWCA’s 2015 AWA award. She is a graduate of Lipscomb University and The Ohio State University.
