Inaugural local leadership class graduates

LOVELAND — Leveraging Local Leaders, a non-partisan group established to recruit and train the next wave of leaders in Northern Colorado, graduated its inaugural class Wednesday.

In a statement, organizers said that the class was made up of community leaders from Greeley, Loveland and Fort Collins — people with varying political beliefs but who shared the goal of wanting to seek solutions for their communities and Northern Colorado and rise above the partisan divide.

“We partnered on this endeavour because local governments are critical to our local economies, and ensuring we are creating a space where pragmatic leaders who want to find solutions to some of our greatest challenges have a pathway and support to run for local office is important. With the ever increasing political divide, approaching local government from a nonpartisan perspective is important for how our region looks in the future,” said Jeff Nuttall, publisher of BizWest.

The class, a six month program, consisted of content on how to run an effective campaign and then information on issues that participants will need to understand as local elected officials.

“L3 was a great experience to learn not just what it takes to run a winning campaign, but more importantly about issues that I will face as an elected official, including water, affordable housing, energy, economic development and more. I believe we can do better as local leaders to elevate civil discourse and make our local governments a place where we can solve our greatest challenges, ensuring Northern Colorado continues to thrive,” Vi Wickam, a 2021 L3 graduate, said in a written statement.

“We designed the class to equip participants with the tools and skills to run strategic, effective, and winning campaigns, including how to govern once elected. Investing in our local leaders before they get elected is critical to the future political and economic dynamics of Northern Colorado. We want to invest in leaders who want to run for office to find solutions to our challenges and ensure Northern Colorado continues to thrive,” said Tom Lucero, co-founder of L3.

L3 will be an annual class. Applications open in the fall with the next class starting in January 2022. 

“This is a long term investment in our region and our communities. We need good people to represent us, make good policies, and find the opportunities and compromise to ensure we continue to thrive as a region. Recruiting and training people who fall across the political spectrum but come to the table with the tool and skill sets to have good civil discourse, find compromise and make good policies is critical, said Leah Johnson, co-founder of L3. “Together we can elevate the conversation to ensure our communities thrive.”

2021 graduates were:

• Nick Armstrong, Fort Collins.
• Morgen Harrington, Loveland.
• Solitare Svoboda, Loveland.
• Gavin Kaszynski, Fort Collins.
• Nicole Watkins, Greeley.
• Vi Wickam, Loveland.
• Kathi Wright, Loveland.