Meet Leadership Eastside’s Class of 2026

Written By Jeni Craswell

Eastside business and community leaders, along with elected officials, nominated 79 area leaders for Leadership Eastside’s Adaptive Leadership program; the class of 40 begins September 12 and 13. Enthusiasm for the essential adaptive leadership program is now exceeding pre-pandemic levels, expressed by our nomination rate and class size. The Leadership Eastside Class of 2026 is a diverse cohort of leaders from across public, private and nonprofit organizations.

Meet the Leadership Eastside Class of 2026 Cohort

  • Abrehet Francis – Entrepreneur and Midwife

  • Alicia Hoppers - CIRC

  • Alyna Carter - KidsQuest Children's Museum

  • Angela Cheung - Self-employed and community volunteer

  • Anthony Mackay - Umpqua Bank

  • Carter Nelson – WA Multifamily Housing Association

  • Chris Long - City of Bellevue

  • Christopher Hays - Outdoors for All Foundation and Hays & Partners LLC

  • Colin Petkus - Eastrail Partners

  • Courtney Murray - Friends of Youth

  • David Frappier - King County Library System

  • Dennis Sills - Plymouth Housing

  • Deva Sharma – Symetra

  • Dre DeCaro - City of Redmond Fire Dept

  • Jacob Tobis - Rainier Athletes

  • Jared Stewart - Together Center

  • Jessica Barren Rozal - Symetra

  • Ji Soo Kim - Department of Commerce

  • Jongson Kim - Symetra

  • Jules Pollack - Boys & Girls Clubs of Bellevue

  • Justine McClure - March of Dimes

  • Kat Marulanda - Co-Rippling

  • Katherine Chiang - Symetra

  • Kaylie Wallin - Republic Services

  • Kristin Corcoran - YMCA of Greater Seattle-Sammamish

  • Laura Delmendo - 4 Tomorrow

  • Lidia A Lebed - Washington Trust Bank

  • Lisa Figueroa - City of Redmond

  • Lori McRea Keller - Bellevue College

  • Megan Adams - Visit Bellevue

  • Nada Hasbini - Whole Foods market

  • Olga Martinez - Symetra

  • Philly Marsh - City of Redmond

  • Ponce Samaniego - Amazon

  • Troy Christensen - PorchLight

  • Sandy Vo - Bellevue Downtown Association

  • Sarah Ellerbrock - Washington State Senate

  • Stirling Scott - Puget Sound Energy

  • Tasnim Rehamani – Community Advocate

  • Toni Pratt - City of Bellevue

  • YZ Tan - DigiPen Institute of Technology

Leadership Eastside’s two-year Adaptive Leadership program is based on The Practice of Adaptive Leadership by Ron Heifetz of the Harvard Center for Public Leadership. Leadership Eastside enhances the practice with a focus on emotional intelligence, racial equity, Gracious Space, systems thinking, and thrival. 

Students participate in a monthly Leader Day where they learn the principles of the practice from experienced facilitators, and in their second year they break into teams to work on an adaptive community campaign. You can find out more information about the program and nominate a leader at LeadershipEastside.com. Leadership Eastside also offers a four-day executive program for managers of high-functioning teams who want to sustain complex system changes.

Jeni Craswell
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