Meet Leadership Eastside’s Class of 2026
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.
