Leadership Atlanta has announced the selection for this year’s class, a list of 86 leaders in the region’s corporate, government and civic worlds.
The annual nine-month program, first conducted in 1970, includes a series of events intended to add to participants’ knowledge about metro Atlanta, but also to their personal leadership capacities, officials said.
“Class members will critically examine themselves as leaders, challenge themselves to find ways to be more effective in their leadership roles, and build relationships of trust and mutual understanding with each other,” according to a statement from the organization.
The program includes retreats, seminars, service projects, discussion groups and community tours.
Initiated by what was then known as the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the first class included 46 people, including future U.S. Senator Wyche Fowler. Overall, the program has graduated more than 3,000 people from 52 classes.
Leadership Atlanta became independent in 1977.
Among those selected for this year’s class were Ronald Applin, chief of police for Atlanta Public Schools; Marc Balizer, managing director for BlackRock; Brian Blake, president of Georgia State University; Courtney English, a senior advisor to Mayor Andre Dickens; Alan Ferguson, the chief executive of Atlanta Habitat for Humanity; Misty Fernandez, region director for Georgia Power; Andrew Goldberg, a vice president at Cox Communications, which is owned by the same company that owns The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Daniele Fallin Herfel, dean of Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health; Judge Ken Hodges of the Court of Appeals of Georgia; Kathryn Lawler, the CEO of Saint Joseph’s; and Georj Lewis, president of Clayton State University.
Julia Houston, an alumna of the program will chair this year’s program.
“Leadership Atlanta’s program required me to be vulnerable, uncomfortable, and stay fully present,” said Houston, now chief strategy and marketing officer for Equifax, in a statement. “It reinforced that, as leaders, we must constantly remind ourselves to listen, have hard conversations, cultivate curiosity, and be truly authentic.”
To learn more, go to their website https://www.leadershipatlanta.org/
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