Muncie leadership academy fires two directors after group chat photos leak

A Muncie nonprofit leadership academy has parted ways with two of its leaders after leaked photos from a group chat showed the two men speaking sexually about women in the community.

Until Tuesday, Mitch Isaacs was executive director of Shafer Leadership Academy and Jeff Robinson was its development director.

On Sunday, a Muncie woman shared screenshots of a 2020 group chat between Isaacs, Robinson, and two other Delaware County men.  In the chat, they share photos of women in professional Zoom meetings and make sexualized comments about their looks.  They also joke about asking for sexual favors from women whose utilities have been disconnected.

Shafer’s board released a statement on Tuesday afternoon.  The organization says after a review, “the employees are no longer with Shafer Leadership Academy.”

Isaacs had run Shafer since 2015.  Robinson has been with Shafer since 2020.  Robinson has also been an elected city council member, served as council president, and ran unsuccessfully for Muncie mayor as a Democrat in the 2023 election.

On Monday, Robinson posted a long apology that seemed to confirm the 2020 group chat as real, and said he had changed his life after he “sought counseling again, began attending church, and started taking a much harder and more honest look at myself, my choices, my relationships and the way I treated people.”

Stephanie Wiechmann is our Managing Editor and “All Things Considered” Host.  Contact her at slwiechmann@bsu.edu.