ignite! January 2025
Welcome to our new 20th anniversary newsletter: ignite!
We are so excited to kick off the year with a new platform celebrating our 20th anniversary and highlighting our alumni, legacy alumni, and the great things ahead for Leadership Eastside.
We can’t wait to share stories with you about the impact that Leadership Eastside has had over the past 20 years, make some BIG announcements, invite you to a bunch of exciting new events, and finish the year with a fun gala! Be sure to keep an eye on this space so you don’t miss an opportunity to connect with your cohort, teammates and friends you’ve met along the way.
I want to take a moment to thank everyone who participated in our learning journey last year. We held stakeholder interviews with alumni, partners, sponsors and community members impacted by our work; sent out surveys; and did a lot of internal and external analysis. We learned a LOT! Your feedback is greatly appreciated and is being used to improve our programs, mission, alumni network engagement, events and how Leadership Eastside shows up going forward.
While we thought this to be true, the research confirmed that our Eastside community continues to need leaders with the skills that Leadership Eastside helps develop. Building leaders who listen to understand, have skills to manage conflict, are able to diagnose complex issues, hold multiple truths, and identify sustainable changes to improve outcomes are critical to addressing the complex issues we face. We continue to need leaders who collaborate with and empower individuals to take action, which is key to building a more equitable and thriving East King County.
Leadership Eastside is dedicated to building and igniting skills that will make our region a great place for each of us to live, work and play. Our new vision, mission and values will guide how we will do this. “What? New vision, mission and values?” you ask. Stay tuned. We’ll reveal them in March right after a HUGE announcement about changes to our Adaptive Leadership program and the opening of nominations for the next cohort, which you’ll hear about next month.
Let’s see each other soon. On March 13, the Class of 2025 will present their adaptive campaigns about youth mental health, the impacts of AI, supporting minority business owners, and justice-involved community support. We hope you will join us, register today.
