Participants in 2020 Sherwood Trust Community Leadership Program

WALLA WALLA—Sherwood Trust is convening a group of community-minded leaders of all experience levels for its 2020 Community Leadership program. The program begins in September and culminates in the summer of 2021 with a collaborative project.

This year, the program will be online, with 45 people participating. Meet the 2020 Community Leadership program participants below.

Alayna Brinton, Ali Rodgers, Alicia Western, Amy Watkins, Ana Aguilar, Anastasia Curtis, Angie Peters, April Martinez, Candi Walmsley, Catalina Garza, Chris Hyland, Christian Moreno, Cia Cortinas, Daniel Solis, Dewann Bach, Eiledon McClellan, Elisha Pritchett, Elizabeth Chamberlain, Gavin Osegueda, Groover Snell, Jacqueline Lonning, Jamie Van Wormer, Jim Pearson, Jose Vera, Karen Carman, Katelyn Reseck, Laura Dixson, Linda Scott, Lucia Ramirez, Lynda Oosterhuis, Madison Richardson, Magnus Frederickson, Maria Garcia, Mary Kennedy, Matthew Nelson, Michael Woolson, Nadine Stecklein, Rey Cooley, Rhonda Gould, Shelly Rasmussen, Steve Lenz, Tamara Paul, Tim Sullivan, Toluwanim Oyefeso, Tracey Edwards

Trainers will be Becky Waggoner-Schwartz and Christian Velasquez-Rivera.

The Community Leadership Program has for 16 years strengthened local leadership and community-building abilities with a hands-on, interactive program to develop leadership and community-building skills for Walla Walla Valley residents. In collaboration with Rural Development Initiatives Inc. (RDI) in Eugene, Oregon, this skill-based learning program focuses on developing community and organizational leadership skills of people in the Walla Walla Valley. There is no cost to participants.

Sherwood Trust’s Community Leadership program is open to all Walla Walla Valley residents regardless of leadership experience. “COVID has exposed deep systemic inequalities, particularly racial inequality,” said Sherwood Trust Program Director Julia Leavitt, “now more than ever, we need to work together for the common good. I look forward to learning from this group of local leaders. We have a group of people who are talented as well as diverse in many ways, including leadership and life experience, age, race, gender, and more.”

Sherwood Trust is a private, placed-based foundation that supports capacity-building to ensure that everyone in the Walla Walla Valley has a sense of belonging and contributes to a thriving region. Founded in 1991 to continue the legacy of Donald and Virginia Sherwood’s efforts to make the Walla Walla Valley a better place, it has invested more than $32 million to strengthen nonprofits and improve communities here.

For more information, please contact: Julia Leavitt at Sherwood Trust at (509)529-2791 or Julia@sherwoodtrust.org