Special Announcement:

  Leadership Whatcom Moves to Chamber

 

Bellingham, WA – Leadership Whatcom, a program of the Whatcom Coalition for Healthy Communities (WCHC), has been transferred to the Bellingham/Whatcom Chamber of Commerce & Industry.  Applications for the 2010-11 Leadership Whatcom Class are now available at www.bellingham.com.

 

Launched as a community-based effort in 2005, Leadership Whatcom program provides participants with an outstanding way to learn about their community and themselves while gaining unique insights about a variety of different aspects of Whatcom County.  There have been four graduating classes of the Leadership Whatcom 10-Month Community Leadership Program, as well as an Alumni Program and their Productive Public Conversations civil dialogue training, the most recent of which focused upon economic development.

 

Moving the program from the Whatcom Coalition for Healthy Communities to the Chamber will allow WCHC to refocus on its core mission.  In addition, locating the program with the Chamber will duplicate a model found in most cities across the country.

 

“The future of Whatcom County depends on effective, well-informed community leaders,” says Ken Oplinger, President/CEO of the Chamber.  “We are pleased to have Leadership Whatcom become a program of the Chamber, and look forward to working with our entire community to ensure that future graduates are able to immediately step into leadership roles in a wide range of non-profits and governmental organizations.”

 

“The Whatcom Coalition for Healthy Communities is proud of the 70+ Leadership Whatcom alumni who are committed to collaborative approaches to improving community health,” said WCHC Executive Director Elizabeth Jennings. “We’re also grateful to the over 100 Whatcom County residents who have planned, facilitated and presented Leadership Whatcom programs, and the hundreds who have attended LW’s public events. We are excited for the Chamber to continue this tradition of broad community-based collaborative leadership development.”

 

For more information on Leadership Whatcom, please contact the Chamber offices at 734-1330, or www.bellingham.com.

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