On Day 37 of 40 Stories in 40 Days, we revisited the Why of Leadership Austin: making a positive impact on civic engagement and social connectedness in Greater Austin. Today, we highlight some of the work we’ve been doing to begin measuring how effective we…
New cohorts for both Emerge and Essential begin their year with a retreat. This is where they meet all of their classmates for the first time, and where the foundation for their entire Leadership Austin experience is laid out. Both retreats include an exercise called…
As we wrap up our 40th Anniversary celebrations, we want to look back on some of the highlights from our more recent history. Of course, one of these has to be when Christopher Kennedy (Essential 16 – 1995) came on board as CEO in 2004….
After Courtney Bailey (Emerge 10 – 2016) completed her Leadership Austin program, she was inspired to return as a full-time member of the staff team. Courtney says that she originally hesitated to apply to Emerge because she thought the definition of “leader” didn’t apply to…
For the Benson-Owens family, Leadership Austin is a family affair. Maurice Benson (Essential 20 – 1999) started the trend. His sister, Pamela Benson-Owens, joined him the following year as a curriculum adviser for the Essential program. Pam stayed on as a faculty member for Emerge…
Emilia “Emmy” Alcocer-Hill (Experience Austin 2014, Emerge 9 – 2015, Essential 40 – 2019) is one of only four people in the 40-year history of Leadership Austin to participate in all three of our core programs. Of those four people, Emmy is the only one…
Lauren Johnson (Essential 38 – 2017) first met Leadership Austin when she was performing with Conspire Theatre, a creative writing and performance ensemble for women who are currently incarcerated in Travis County or who have experienced incarceration. Her first performance was part of Arts and…
Kirk Watson (Essential 5 – 1984) finished his Leadership Austin program 35 years ago, but he is still impacted by the experience every day. He continues working on the issues he learned about in the class and collaborating with the people he met through his…