LT Newsletter & Racial Equity Updates

From the Director: Sue Bennett, LT'94

Dear LT Community:

Last month, LT’s Board Chair, Grace Chien, LT’98, and I sent a letter to the community expressing our commitment to work toward racial justice and to changing the systems and structures that perpetuate racist inequities. It is our charge – as leaders in this community and in partnership with all members of our community – to find ways to foster sustainable change.

We pledged to follow that letter with a list of ways in which Leadership Tomorrow is continuing and deepening our work in addressing racism as a leadership issue.

Over the past year, the Leadership Tomorrow board has been working with a facilitator to deepen its own understanding of privilege and bias, and to better articulate organizational beliefs and values around racial equity work. A Racial Equity Task Force comprised of board members and alumni with a background in diversity and equity work met for six months to bring suggestions to the board based on perspectives from private, public, and nonprofit sectors.

We would like to share with you two documents and a resource page related to LT’s work over this last year:

LT’s Racial Equity Statement of Beliefs and Values – a guiding document for the organization.
LT’s Racial Equity Commitments – a growing list of ways in which we are operationalizing these statements and holding ourselves accountable.
Website Page Devoted to Resources and Actions – a compilation of antiracism resources and action. This is not an exhaustive list; there are many resources available to deepen your antiracism work.

The current steps we are taking will change as we grow and adapt our work. We are committed to: incorporating LT’s commitment to racial equity in our strategic planning process; engaging in ongoing organizational evolution as we identify additional opportunities and limitations; and working to codify commitments as policies that shape the organization going forward. We welcome any feedback you have.

Alumni Spotlight: Maria McDaniel, LT'14

City of Seattle, Senior Business Analyst - Client Solutions in IT

Maria McDaniel, born and raised in Seattle, is deeply involved in her community and in Leadership Tomorrow. She is a member-owner (Partner) of Seattle’s Black & Tan Hall and serves on the Board of Directors of Seattle CityClub , Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) Customer Review Panel and SPU’s Creeks, Drainage & Wastewater Advisory Council. She is also a Lifetime Member at the Southeast Seattle Senior Center and a Board Advisor at Onyx Gallery . For LT, she served as a Class Coach for LT’15, currently serves as a Class Rep for LT’14, is an active member of LT’s POC Alumni Group, and has served on the Screening and Selection Committee.

When asked how LT has influenced her leadership and community involvement, Maria shared that LT helped reinforce her understanding of regional issues, such as gentrification, and the need for POC ownership. She also regularly draws on the five practices of exemplary leadership from The Leadership Challenge®.

LT gave Maria greater appreciation for the small “l” leaders, noting that they are often the people who get things done. “It’s the little things that cause the ripple effect, and those are the voices and tasks that sometimes go unseen. My experience at LT reinforced the need to continue to speak up, show up, have a seat at the table, and not take for granted your actions and how they really do make an impact.”

Visit our website for the full story to see how Maria lives those values and continues to show up, speak up, and make an impact.

LT'20 Graduation & Alumni Reunion

In June, we celebrated the Class of 2020 and welcomed them to the LT alumni community at the LT'20 Graduation and Alumni Reunion . Family members, friends, colleagues, and alumni from around the country joined together to reflect, inspire, and connect around leading through crisis and opportunity.

If you weren't able to attend, we encourage you to watch the recording below. Note: If you don't have time to watch the full event, the YouTube description includes links to specific event highlights (Class Speakers, Keynote Speaker, etc.).

LT'20 Economy Challenge Month

As we pivoted to a virtual learning environment midway through the LT'20 year, we delivered the Challenge Day content in a variety of ways. For the Economy Challenge Day , the planning team created a menu of opportunities to support the class's learning objectives. This included Zoom sessions with the following leaders and business owners:

Impacts of COVID-19 on the Regional Economy with Chris Mefford, LT’08, President and CEO, Community Attributes. Watch the recording here.
Roundtable Speaker Series with Local Business Owners and Leaders
Jaja Okigwe, First Choice Health. Watch the recording here.
Beto Yarce, Ventures Nonprofit. Watch the recording here.
Uyen Nguyen, Nue. Watch the recording here.
Brian Surratt, LT'07, Alexandria Real Estate Equities. Watch the recording here.

LT Alumni Database

The LT Alumni Database enables you to easily stay connected to the LT community. Once you set up your profile, you can use the database to search for people from your class, look for leaders with specific expertise for your board of directors, and much more.

If you haven't already, please make sure to set up your profile here. If it's been awhile since you've last logged in and you've recently moved, switched jobs, joined a board of directors, etc., please log in to update your information!

If you have questions about the database, email Rebeca.

Year-End Giving

A healthy community requires engaged leaders who can work together across differences and across sectors to foster sustainable change.

Now more than ever, we need the type of leaders that LT cultivates. We believe that if we work with each other, for each other, we will emerge from this critical time in our history as a more just, equitable, and resilient community. Please support our mission to cultivate, inspire, connect, and engage an effective community of leaders. Our fiscal year ends August 31, 2020.

Grapevine

Read the updates below to see how LT alumni are driving change, growing in their careers, and much more. If you have an update ( career changes, appointments, new family arrivals, etc.) you would like to share with the LT community, email Megan .

Volunteer Opportunity:

Support the Seattle creative sector by providing free online consultations responding to COVID-19 setbacks for artists and organizations.

Artists Up, an arts funder collaborative between the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, 4Culture, and ArtsWA, launched an online consultant hub to assist creatives on accessing services, clarifying guidelines, navigating processes, or making referrals focused on COVID-19 relief opportunities. Find additional information and link to online hub here.

Your subject matter expertise in law, finance/accounting, housing, unemployment, business loans, healthcare, emergency services, etc. are needed. Self-refer or recommend someone here.

1990: Sue Sherbrooke was named the 2020 University of Washington Distinguished Honors Alumna . Read more here .

1992: Sherilyn G. Anderson was appointed to the Board of Directors for First Northwest Bancorp, the holding company for First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Port Angeles.

1997: Stephan Blanford has started a new position as Executive Director of Children's Alliance. Stephan is succeeding his LT’97 classmate Paola Maranan.

1997: Eric de los Santos has started a new position as Associate General Counsel, Labor and Employment at Facebook.

2006: Kyle Vixie was confirmed by the King County Council in July 2019 to a three-year term on the Citizens’ Elections Oversight Committee (CEOC) and will serve as its Chair through 2021. Additionally, he was named Vice President of the Board of Directors at Associated Recreation Council (ARC) for 2020, the nonprofit partner of Seattle Parks and Recreation.

2011: NPR hosted a TED Radio hour called Meditations on Loneliness – related to the loneliness people are feeling as a result of the pandemic. Grace Kim, LT'11, was a featured guest talking about her cohousing community and how they are coping during this period of physical distancing. Listen to it here.

2013: Frank Nam, through his position at Civic Commons, is hosting a podcast called "We Belong Here," where he interviews community stewards about how we can work together differently to build a thriving greater Seattle region. Some of his interviewees are LT alumni, including Shannon Loew, LT'17, and Becky Witmer, LT'16. Learn more and subscribe to his podcast here.

2015: Lynn Heinisch has accepted a new position as Chief Communications Officer at The Task Force for Global Health.

2015: Christine Lessard was promoted to Director of Philanthropic Recognition Program at University of Washington.

2017: Shannon Loew has launched Hatchback Cottages , helping owners create a more flexible, sociable, and financially secure future with backyard cottages.

2018: Callista Chen, LT'18, was featured in the Seattle Times for her work to secure $100,000 in funding to help South Seattle families. Read the article here .

2018: Joanna Stagg was interviewed for an article in Seattle's Child magazine about managing stress and anxiety with your partner during this pandemic. Read the article here .

2019: Through her position as Manager, Food Security at Seattle Children's, Kelly Fisher contributed to these publications on food security and social health:

Health Leads (Boston): Examines three workflows at Children’s: readmission risk reduction, inpatient resources for Medicaid-enrolled families, and the food security program. Key messages: improve community health by scoping small, evaluating, iterating, and sharing learning.
Health Care Without Harm: "2019 health care food trends” blog post: “At Seattle Children’s Hospital in Washington, research is shining new light on the connection between the prevalence of food insecurity among children and families with chronic illness. … The hospital is now investigating how health care organizations, along with other community supports, can respond to hunger and promote food security.”
Tradeoffs “Food is Medicine” podcast: Dr. Mandy Cohen (Secretary of Health and Human Services for North Carolina; oversees the state’s Medicaid program): “But I do think over the medium- to long-term, you are going to see more food interventions, whether that’s medically tailored meals or other kinds of interventions, be part of the suite of activities that our health care dollars pay for because we want our health care dollars to pay for health. And we know that intervening around food drives us closer to getting health.”