Dear LT Community:

Have you wondered about the ripple effect that Leadership Tomorrow brings to individuals, organizations, and the wider community? In each edition of our newsletter, we showcase stories of our remarkable alumni, demonstrating the values of LT by fostering an inclusive and thriving community. This month, our spotlight shines on alumni within the private sector who are making tangible differences and demonstrating the real-world influence of LT's mission.

This summer we said goodbye to Tamara Myers, who led the curriculum design for the Flagship Program for the last five years. Her expertise in adult learning and racial and social justice was instrumental in supporting LT’s mission to cultivate community leaders who are prepared to take on today’s challenges.  

I am thrilled to welcome C.Marie Taylor, LT’23, to our LT team as Flagship Program Consultant. C.Marie brings a wealth of experience as a consultant in leadership, diversity, and race equity. She served as both CEO and program facilitator for Leadership Montgomery, MD. She embodies passion and joy for community leadership, and we can’t wait for you to meet her.

Leadership Tomorrow’s fiscal year ends August 31. We have had a fantastic year but are $7,000 short of our fundraising goal. If you can help close the gap, please donate on our website.

We are so very grateful to each of you for the work you do in this world.  

In Community,

Sue Bennett, LT’94

Executive Director

Leadership Tomorrow gave me a new sense of purpose in the work I do, how I behave, the way I approach conversations, what success looks like, and so much more.

We explored the pillars of a healthy society including neighborhoods and communities, health and wellbeing, arts and culture, economy, environment, and education. Within each pillar, we heard from leading experts, investigated unique local challenges, and imagined the possibilities. I was frustrated, joyful, misunderstood, valued, confused, supported, offended, and loved. Ultimately, I was inspired by the people in my cohort and hopeful that we will indeed create a better tomorrow.

I also had the opportunity to work on a leadership project as part of a small group. Together we supported an incredible nonprofit in centering racial equity in their board practices. Scoping a project like this and developing a plan was markedly different from any other project I’ve ever worked on in the private or nonprofit sector. Above all, it was this project engagement that taught me the most during the program.

Zelle with members of her lab team, coach, and nonprofit partner on the final Possibility Day. From left to right: Christina DePaolo, LT'23, Saunjah Brantley, LT'22 (coach), Kimberly Kamolz, LT'23, Megan Maus, LT'23, Padrica Hoffman (nonprofit partner), Zelle Rettman, LT'23, Phyllis Sutton, LT'23, Hiawatha Davis III, LT'23.

A few pieces of wisdom from my time at LT that I'll take with me as I continue my journey:

• Move at the speed of trust.
• Resist the slippery slope of arbitrary urgency.
• Growth is not linear.
• Lead with humility and curiosity.
• Ask first: What don’t I know?
• Give grace for everyone to process at different speeds and in different ways.
• Accept imperfection and non-closure.
• Call people in, not out. Shame is a distancing experience. Instead, develop strategies for interacting that lift people up and bring people together.

To my fellow cohort members, I thank you deeply for the hours of program work and travel to participate in-person, prioritizing LT while balancing other obligations, being vulnerable when trust was not yet established, and for your commitment to changing the status quo. On a deeply personal level, thank you to those who were open to me sharing about my experience as a halachically observant Jewish person in this program, Seattle and beyond; I found belonging with you.

May we all continue our work together to create an inclusive Puget Sound where people of all identities thrive.

This reflection was shortened for length. You can read Zelle's full reflection here.

Photo: Mary Pugh (center) with two Pugh Capital employees, Greg Wilson, LT'22 (left) and Darius Cayetano, LT'14 (right)

Tell us about your work, why it matters, and how Pugh Capital Management prioritizes building community and belonging in the workplace?

Pugh Capital manages fixed income portfolios for institutional clients, such as corporate and public pension plans, endowments, and foundations. Our vision in creating the firm was to build a diverse, successful firm that clients would view as a trusted partner. Today, Pugh Capital manages more than $10 billion on behalf of its clients, and we are one of the most diverse asset management firms in the country.  

I stumbled into a career in investments, and I feel blessed to make a living spending time doing work that I love. I think building community and belonging in the workplace came from my life experiences, which included periods when I did not feel a sense of inclusiveness and how that contrasted with the times I felt part of the team. As an African American and a woman in finance in the 1980s, I often walked a lonely path and wanted to make a difference by increasing diversity in the asset management industry. 

When you launch your own firm, you have an opportunity to create the environment that you would like to experience during your time at work. In building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community at work, and by focusing on culture and values, we have created an environment where people want to come to work, be together, and succeed as a team. Other benefits include low employee turnover, more experienced and loyal employees, and a designation by "Pension & Investments" as a Best Places to Work. 

How did your LT experience impact your leadership? 

LT was a pivotal experience in my early career. I was 26 or 27 years old and working at Washington Mutual when I went through the Flagship Program. I was introduced to the program by Lynn Ryder, who was head of HR at the bank. She was active in LT at the board level and super supportive of me being in the program and the program itself. She represented servant leadership and actively engaged with me throughout the program year. Andy Smith, who headed Pacific Northwest Bell, was on Washington Mutual’s Board. Our LT project was to create a video on teenage pregnancy. Andy offered up his video team to help us with this project. He modeled servant leadership and caring about my experience and the community. 

Throughout the program, I was exposed to people who wanted to make a difference in the community and in life. Those experiences were often on a small scale, but for the person they impacted (like me), it meant the world. Some of the lessons I learned were that great leadership is about the personal touches, as well as the results. LT exposed me to different leadership styles, experiences, and the community. All of those aspects were foundational for my path forward as a leader and a community volunteer.

Julie Pham, PhD, LT'16, CEO, CuriosityBased

Tell us about your work, why it matters, and why you focus on helping others practice curiosity.  

Research shows about 83% of leaders say they value curiosity at work yet only 24% of employees feel curious on a regular basis and 70% of people say they face obstacles asking questions at work. My company, CuriosityBased, helps organizational leaders close this gap between the curiosity they say they want for their teams and what their teams feel safe actually practicing. With our original curiosity exercises, we guide companies, teams, and boards to renew their sense of self-discovery and learning in the work that they do and with whom they do that work, so they don’t feel bored, disconnected, or burnt out.

How did your LT experience impact your leadership? 

LT introduced me to a new community of local leaders. Dozens of my LT'16 classmates became lifelong friends, collaborators, and cheerleaders. When I started my business, many supported my book, 7 Forms of Respect: A Guide to Transforming Your Communication and Relationships at Work, and some even became CuriosityBased clients. My LT experience deepened my fascination with differences among those working in the government, nonprofit, and private sectors and with our unconscious sector stereotypes. I volunteered on and eventually chaired the LT Curriculum Committee to continue pushing my own leaning edge, which gave me new opportunities for personal and professional transformation.  

Read the updates below to see how people in our community are growing in their careers and fostering changes to make our region a place where people from all communities and identities thrive. If you have an update you would like to share with the LT community, email Megan.

LT'92: Laura Rehrmann recently passed away. Read her obituary here.

LT'93 and LT'18: Vivian Phillips, LT'93, and Brian Carter, LT'18 are being awarded the Champions of Unity Award at Northwest African American Museum's Unity Benefit.

LT'99: LeAnne Moss was a guest on the "Can We Talk About...?" podcast, talking about whiteness and embodiment. Listen to it here.

LT'15: Diane Canate started a new position as Vice President, Technology Strategy & Operations at Lululemon.

LT'15: Emily Carrion started a new position as SVP of Marketing at PartnerTap.

LT'15: Christine Lessard started a new position as Chief Development Officer at Boys & Girls Club of Bellevue.

LT'16: Meg McCann started a new position as Interim CEO at REST.

LT'17: Ben Johns started a new position as Associate Director of Advancement at University of Washington College of Environment.

LT'18: Kymberly Evanson was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Judge for U.S. Federal District Court for the Western District of Washington.

LT'19: Nicki McClung started a new position as Lead - Sustainable Packing Partnerships at PepsiCo.

LT'20: Sung Cho started a new position as Equity, Race and Social Justice Program Manager at King County.

LT'20: Erin Gagnon was promoted to Chief Transformation Officer at DTG Recycle.

LT'20: Robert Harmon started a new position as General Counsel at ICON.

LT'20: Nancy Sanabria, as Vice President of Program Strategies of Philanthropy Northwest, was a co-curator and institutional partner of Voice. Vision. Value. Black Women Leading Philanthropy's book, "Portraits of Us: A Book of Essays Centering Black Women in Philanthropy," which will be released this month.

LT'22: Cassidy Inden started a new position as Clinical Operations Analyst at University of Washington - School of Medicine.

LT'22: Susan Mason merged What's Next Washington with a nonprofit in Maryland and launched her consulting company, Susan Mason Consulting, helping employers operationalize Fair Chance Hiring programs. 

LT'23: Jay O'Neal started a new position as Director of Finance and Operations at Washington State Charter Schools Association (WA Charters).