Forty emerging Eastside community leaders have been accepted in the Leadership Eastside (LE) community leader development program.

LE’s class members live and work in Eastside communities, they come from private, public and non-profit sectors and they all share a desire to use their leadership experience to help improve the quality of life for the Eastside region.

Redmond residents in the class of 2011 are Ramona Clifton, buyer/planner for IDD Aerospace; Karin Duval, a community leader; Tom Flynn, health and safety supervisor at the University of Washington, Bothell; Tracy Hoien, executive director of the Lake Washington Schools Foundation; Hank Margeson, area underwriting manager for Safeco Insurance Company and also a member of the Redmond City Council; and Tim Sayers, senior manager at The Boeing Company.

Class members dedicate a full day each month from September through May by focusing on six community leader capabilities including sustaining stewardship, thinking holistically, valuing dialogue, envisioning possibilities, influencing outcomes, and building community – with emphasis on becoming a catalyst for change.

Based on what they learn from the community and LE course materials, class members will identify similar interests, form teams, and develop a community project that addresses one particular regional issue facing the Eastside community. This practical application helps prepare future community leaders for challenges they may experience while creating positive change, program officials say.

Over the past three years Leadership Eastside has graduated 96 Eastside community leaders. LE’s alumni (Class of 2008) and members of the 2009 and 2010 classes are serving their communities as elected officials (mayor, city council, commissioners), as non-profit board of directors, and all as community volunteers. The three previous classes delivered 17 regional community service projects.

More information on the program and organization is available at www.leadershipeastside.com.