The inspiration for The Effective Leadership Academy (ELA) began when Founder and Executive Director Flo Brett, recognized the struggle of newly promoted corporate professionals who were expected to assume leadership positions, but lacked the necessary required traits. Brett, a former nurse and executive training program manager, developed and led an intensive adult leadership-training program with outstanding results. Through her own personal experiences with her local educational community, Brett quickly identified a significant gap in student leadership training within the middle school and secondary school environment. Taking lessons learned and successes from her corporate curricula, Brett adapted it to serve the needs of students in grades 5-12, college students and educators to ensure they receive essential life skills during their most formative years. The concept of training young people, and those who impact the lives of young people with essential life skills led to the creation of ELA in 2008.