Congratulations to the Leadership Athens County Class of 2016-2017!
This year’s class of 24 individuals from various backgrounds brought perspectives on how we can work together to address important community issues here in Athens County. As with years prior, they explored our area’s economic, political, social and cultural landscapes through discussions, tours, simulations, and conversations with community leaders. They visited 26 different locations and met 67 corporate, cultural, community, and political leaders. They are now a part of the 222 LAC alumni who’ve embarked on this nine-month leadership journey.
Some highlights of this years’ experience were working on a GoodWorks house, riding with the City of Athens police officers, Exploring Unconscious Bias with Winsome Chunnu Campbell and touring a coal reclamation site.
Sponsorships and support for this year’s program came from participant employers, the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce, Michael Carpenter and Associates, Athens County Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation of Nelsonville, and Hocking Valley Bank. And finally, our thanks to the presenters and hosts, who took the time to share and steward our learning experiences.
Leadership Athens County is a nine-month course, from September through May, aimed at developing a corps of informed citizens to provide dynamic community leadership. Participants explore Athens County’s economic, political, social and cultural landscape through discussions, tours, meetings with our public officials, and interactions with community leaders. LAC also helps participants develop their own leadership style. The goals and objectives for Leadership Athens County are to:
- Identify and select highly motivated and potential community leaders to participate in the program;
- Systematically challenge the participants to become aware of, to examine and to respond to the social, economic and environmental needs of the community;
- Develop an esprit de corps among the participants, which will provide a common ground for working together on present and future community needs.