Special early bird pricing for registering by January 14th

What do balloon animals, shark diving and rap have in common? If you guessed “what?” You’re right. If you guessed peer introductions for the newest best class of Leadership Brevard; you’re also right!

The session title ‘Your Journey Into Leadership’ has no mention of a map, GPS or other way finder for this journey – the 60 participants of the new (best) class of 2019 arrived with eyes wide open and trepidation of the introductions exercise…and of head shots! Dana Niemeier of Dana Niemeier Photography put all at ease; professional headshots are available for each class member as a benefit of participation in Leadership Brevard.

LEAD Brevard board chairman, Dale Ketcham, LB ‘1986, Space Florida, welcomed the class, shared LEAD Brevard’s goals for the program and led a conversation with Leadership Brevard alumni panel 2018 class members – Mary Dru Bowman ’18 Florida Wildlife Hospital; Scott Eller ’18, Rock Paper Simple; Jason Jones ’18, Sentry View Systems; Eva Rey ’18, The Viera Company; and Cordell Rolle ’18, Liberty IT Solutions.

Peer introductions were one of the highlights of the day; using creativity and fear as a motivator (for the 1/3 of the class that self describes as ‘introverted’) classmates introduced each other – here’s what several of them had to say ‘after’ the exercise:

“I understand now that I should expect to experience genuine personal and professional growth through meaningful action.”

“I enjoyed how open this group is, everyone is more open minded than I thought.”

“I was surprised with the amount of talent in one room and no one was judgmental- it seems like we have a great group and I’m looking forward to the next session."

Following a ‘commercials’ team building exercise led by Mario Busacca of KeyStone Strategies, LB ‘97, the afternoon presentations session featured Assistant County Manager, John Denninghoff and Dr. Dale Brill, Orlando Economic Partnership. Again, testimonial comments from the class say it best:
 

“Insight into Brevard beyond space coast, got a snapshot of much I didn’t know about the challenges, metrics and policy needed to enact change.”

“The level of economic issues facing Brevard. Need to develop more awareness in area, residents need to understand these issues.”

The 2019 Leadership Action Projects (LAP) were on deck during the last session of the day and vied for the talents of the members of the class; eight LAP’s are part of the Leadership Brevard experience this year. There have been 180 LAP’s completed since 1986 with an average of 2,500 volunteer hours annually and a financial impact of $1.8 Million dollars over 33 years. LAP partner organizations this year are:

Cocoa Beach Main Street Inc.“Creating an Environmentally Sustainable Downtown”

Jeff Pearson LB '07, Chief of Police of the Satellite Beach Police Department  has been reappointed by Gov. Rick Scott to the 19-member Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission.