Wednesday, July 15 | 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM Workshops
Please note that workshops, their dates and times are subject to be changed.
Building a Life-Stage Alumni Engagement Engine • Jill Goodman | Leadership Austin
The cohort year may end – but the leadership journey shouldn’t. The program is magic. What if the post-program experience felt just as meaningful? For community leadership programs, alumni are our greatest asset – so why does alumni engagement often feel like the juice isn’t worth the squeeze? Why don’t alumni show up? What if the problem isn’t alumni, but the outdated models we’re using in a would with more pressures?
This session shares hot-off-the-press insights from Leadership Austin’s recent five-month deep dive into turning alumni engagement on its head. Instead of starting with committees and events, we asked: What if alumni were true stewards of the organization they love? What do they actually want after graduation – and what are we uniquely positioned to offer?
We’ll explore the top alumni motivations — connection, access, learning, impact, and recognition, status, and legacy — and how these drivers shape a life-stage engagement model that transforms graduates into ambassadors. You’ll also learn how we are retooling fundraising and how we’re elevating events we already produce with VIP-style alumni experiences rather than adding more to the calendar.
We will share our playbook and our fumbles, and create space for the room to design something together and share promising ideas!
About the Speakers: Jill Goodman is the CEO for Leadership Austin, a nonprofit cultivating courageous leaders. Her purpose is helping people feel connected, energized, and hopeful about the future. Jill was first exposed to civic life as a 7th grader in Phoenix when serving on the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council. She remembers a really big binder. Today, Jill envisions a growing community of leaders who create exponential impact across Central Texas (and the world). Prior to joining Leadership Austin, she served as Deputy Chief of Strategy & Innovation for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS). Jill is an alumnus of Leadership Austin Essential and serves on the National Community Leadership Collaborative. She loves discovering new coffee spots. #LeadwithPurpose
Bridging Connections Through Story: Leading Tough Conversations That Build Trust, Not Division • Griff Hall | Griff Hall Strategic Leadership | Leadership Dayton Facilitator • Derek Matthews | Griff Hall Strategic Leadership
In a time marked by polarization, mistrust, and surface-level dialogue, leadership programs are being called to do more than teach skills they must create spaces where people can truly understand one another. This interactive workshop explores how leaders can bridge divides by learning to engage in tough conversations through the power of personal and community storytelling.
Drawing on our combined experience leading diverse teams, coaching leaders across sectors, and facilitating conversations in high-stakes environments, we offer participants practical tools to move beyond avoidance and into meaningful connection. This session goes beyond theory, equipping leadership practitioners with repeatable frameworks they can immediately integrate into their programs, classrooms, and communities.
Participants will learn how to foster dialogue that honors lived experience, build empathy, and transform tension into learning without sacrificing accountability or psychological safety.
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bout the Speaker: Griff Hall An energetic facilitator, educator, coach and consultant with extensive experience in developing and delivering learning programs in leadership, strategy, and management, Griff thrives on using innovative strategies to teach others how to practice dynamic leadership.
Griff has supported Leadership Dayton for more than a decade, facilitating opening and closing retreats. He is principal of GSL, a company he founded in 2007 to help organizations and individuals realize strategic capabilities and leadership capacities. GSL works in diverse sectors including defense, healthcare, hospitality and entertainment, engineering, technology, education, construction and manufacturing. Griff is a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business, teaching courses in leadership and strategy. He works extensively with Leadership programs throughout the United States. Griff was founding Board Chair of the Association of Leadership Programs. Prior to founding GSL, Griff held three chief executive positions.
Griff and his wife and two daughters live near Annapolis, MD where they are heavily involved in water sports. Griff paddles kayaks and paddleboards year round and occasionally surfs and sails. He competes in numerous paddle races and particularly enjoys endurance events.
About the Speaker: Derek Matthews is currently the Principal of Legacy Management and Consulting LLC. He previously served as the Director for the Anne Arundel County Police Department-Office of Re-Entry and Community Collaboration. Mr. Matthews had a diverse Law Enforcement career as well as in the private sector, local, and the federal government. He has served his country in several prominent positions. Mr. Matthews has a diverse law enforcement career that includes critical infrastructure protection, federal asset protection and real world operations in hostile environments. Some highlights of his service include:
* Over 25 years in the field of Law Enforcement and Force Protection
* Tested expert in counterterrorism and Surveillance Detection Training and Operations
* 10 years local law enforcement experience including Tactical Supervisor (SST/VIPER) at the Prince George's County Office of the Sheriff
* Assistant Police Chief in the City of Glenn Arden.
* Tactical (SRT/SWAT) Commander Unites States Dep of Energy.
* Senior Vice President of a Major Oversees Security Provider with oversight of 6500 hundred employees to include the initial Iraq contract security stand up.
Mr. Matthews is a master trainer, workshop facilitator and moderator who has moderated Anne Arundel County Town Hall meetings related to hostile race relations and other community related activities. Mr. Matthews has been called upon as a consultant by state and local Law Enforcement agencies during potential civil unrest regarding potentially negative protest. He served the Office of the County Executive as the Anne Arundel County Community and Minority Outreach Officer and Special Project Manager for two Administrations. He is a military veteran, author, and community leader.
Beyond the Agenda: Mastering the Facilitator Stance for Transformational Meetings • Charity Adams, CTF | Facilitate Co | Leadership Tomorrow (NE) Alumni
Are your meetings transactional report-outs" that leave your team drained and disengaged? It's time to move beyond the agenda and master the facilitator stance. This high-energy, interactive workshop is designed for leaders who want to shift from simply managing a meeting to facilitating true organizational transformation.
Through a blend of Theory of Participation (ToP) and Liberating Structures, you will discover the invisible "soft skills" that differentiate a facilitative leader from a traditional one. This session is not a lecture; it is a live laboratory where you will witness these methods modeled in real-time. You will work in small groups to tackle common meeting "monsters" from dominant voices to lack of focus and leave with a concrete toolkit of facilitation methods you can apply the very next Monday. Join us to learn how to ignite participation, build authentic consensus, and watch your community's capacity flourish.
About the Speaker: Charity Adams, CTF is the founder and principal facilitator of Facilitate Co, where she helps leaders and teams across the Great Plains and virtually navigate the complexity of collaboration — turning friction into unified progress.
A Certified ToP® Facilitator (CTF), ToP® Mentor Trainer, and Lumina Practitioner, Charity is also co-owner of Great Plains ToP, LLC, a regional partnership of certified practitioners. Her practice spans four services: Planning & Strategy, Retreats & Implementation, ToP® Training, and Coaching — working with corporate teams, nonprofit leadership, coalitions, and public-sector agencies on strategic planning, team alignment, and the hard conversations most groups try to route around.
Charity believes well-run meetings produce accountable teams, and that the skills underneath this are learnable. She designs and leads processes that deliver what every group needs: clarity, alignment, and commitment to action. Learn more at facilitateco.com.
Building a Connected Leadership Ecosystem • Jessi McQuerrey | Community State Bank | Former Leadership Iowa Program Director • Liesl Seabert, CEcD, AICP | University of Northern Iowa - Institute for Decision Making
In Iowa, we're chasing a bold goal: every community or region should have access to a leadership program and the people running those programs shouldn't have to do it alone.
This interactive workshop shares how Iowa is making that vision real by intentionally connecting leadership programs across the state through the Leadership Exchange and Leadership Bootcamp, an annual conference and grant program with a goal to bolster leadership programs and leaders throughout the state. Instead of spotlighting a single "perfect" program model, this session zooms out to show how Iowa is building a statewide network of leadership program managers who learn from one another, grow as leaders, and collaborate across all communities.
Participants will hear quick, practical insights from leadership practitioners working at the local, regional, and statewide levels, then jump into facilitated roundtable conversations with peers. Together, we'll tackle the questions leadership program managers rarely get time to ask: When was the last time you invested in your own leadership development? How often do you connect with others running leadership programs in your state or region? What kind of support do program managers actually need to build programs that last?
Through candid conversation, shared learning, and guided reflection, participants will walk away with fresh ideas, practical strategies, and renewed energy to strengthen leadership programs at home. Iowa's experience offers adaptable, real-world lessons for any state or community ready to bridge connections, support leaders behind the scenes, and build leadership that truly sticks.
About the Speaker: Jessi McQuerrey currently serves as the Community Development Officer for Community State Bank (CSB) headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa. In her role, Jessi helps to drive CSB’s mission to “connect, serve, and build” their Central Iowa communities, managing corporate giving, volunteerism, and community engagement.
Prior to joining CSB, Jessi spent more than 11 years on staff at the Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI), Iowa’s largest statewide business association, where she directed her work toward the organization’s 501c3 entity, the ABI Foundation. During her time, she wore a variety of hats, primarily managing and facilitating the organization’s statewide education and leadership programming. It was here that she got involved with the Association of Leadership Programs (ALP), an organization she continues to advocate for today. Jessi enjoys fostering a continuum of connected leaders and partners across the state and doing her part to make Iowa the best place to live and work.
Outside of work, Jessi remains passionate about leadership development and education, and loves giving her time to numerous education-based initiatives and Central Iowa nonprofits alongside the CSB Changemakers, their corporate volunteerism program. She holds formal roles with the Iowa Rural Development Council (IRDC) as the current Vice Chair of the Leadership Exchange committee, and as a board member of Des Moines Prep, a public charter high school in Des Moines. Jessi spent five years on the Young Professionals of Iowa board, concluding her chair term in 2024, the same year that she was honored to be recognized as a Des Moines Business Record Forty Under 40. Jessi is a Cedar Falls, Iowa, native and alumnae of Central College in Pella, Iowa. She and her husband K.J. live in West Des Moines.
About the Speaker: Liesl Seabert is a Program Manager with the University of Northern Iowa's Institute for Decision Making, where she works with communities, nonprofits, and economic development organizations to strengthen leadership capacity, facilitate strategic planning, and build collaborative solutions to complex challenges.
Throughout her career, Liesl has focused on community development, leadership engagement, placemaking, and helping organizations move from vision to implementation. She is particularly passionate about developing leaders and building the networks, processes, and programs that help communities thrive.
While serving with the Iowa Economic Development Authority's Empower Rural Iowa initiative, Liesl led the launch of the Iowa Leadership Exchange in 2020 and the Iowa Leadership Bootcamp in 2021. She served as chair of the joint initiative through 2025, helping grow a statewide network of leadership practitioners, volunteers, and program staff dedicated to strengthening leadership across Iowa. She continues to serve on the planning committee and is co-chair of the inaugural steering committee for the Iowa Leadership Collective, a statewide effort focused on advancing leadership development through collaboration, shared resources, and learning.
Liesl serves on the boards of the Iowa Rural Development Council, Professional Developers of Iowa, and Keep Iowa Beautiful, and is a member of the Main Street Iowa Advisory Council. Originally from Florida, she now proudly considers herself an Iowan by choice. Outside of work, she enjoys discovering local coffee shops, photographing the unique character of Iowa's communities, and keeping up with her two young daughters with her husband in Ankeny, Iowa.
You Can't Build What You Can't See: Relational Intelligence for Community Leadership • Dr. Gary Owens, Jr., BCC, PCC | Amplifi Executive Coaching & Development | Leadership Orlando Alumni
Every community and organization has an org chart. And then there's reality. The person everyone calls before a big decision. The connector who somehow knows everyone. The talented contributor nobody thinks to include. If you can't see these patterns, you're building blind.
Most leadership development focuses on emotional intelligence: know yourself, manage your reactions, read the room. That's necessary, but it's not sufficient. Emotional intelligence is about the individual. Relational intelligence operates at the systems level. It's about seeing how connection, trust, and influence actually flow through your community/organization, and knowing where the gaps are before you try to fill them.
In this session, you'll assess your own Relational Intelligence across five dimensions, then go deep on Relational Awareness: the ability to read the invisible architecture of your organization or community. You'll learn to identify the real connectors (not just the loudest voices), spot where relationships are thin or missing entirely, and notice who's being left at the margins.
But this isn't a lecture. You'll build an actual map of your community's relational landscape during the session, identify the gaps, and create a specific outreach plan for one connection you need to make.
No inspirational fluff. No abstract frameworks you'll forget by dinner. You'll walk out with a map and a move, ready to build the bridges your community actually needs.
About the Speaker: Dr. Gary Owens, Jr., BCC, PCC is the founder of Amplifi Executive Coaching & Development, where he helps leaders shift from expert to multiplier, becoming catalysts for their organizations. With nearly two decades of healthcare leadership experience, including executive roles managing multimillion-dollar operations and physician groups, Gary understands firsthand that technical expertise alone doesn't create lasting impact.
His work centers on developing relational intelligence: the capacity to read organizational dynamics, build trust, and lead through influence rather than authority. He holds a Doctorate in Leadership and is both a Board Certified Coach (BCC) and ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC).