Trish Bennett, Editor
CIRCLEVILLE – The 2016 Pickaway Fellows class kicked off its executive learning program Thursday in the office of the Pickaway County Community Foundation on North Court Street.
The eight-member class is the fourth group to participate in the program through the Pickaway Competitiveness Network’s Leadership for Tomorrow Fund, which provides an intensive, hands-on, executive learning program for the next generation of appointed and elected leaders in Pickaway County, according to Sereana H. Dresbach, Fund chair.
The 2016 class includes Bethany Reid, Jennifer Tomlinson, Sunny Stewart, Susanne Hess, Meagan Webb, Mindi Brown, Billy Dennis and Rich Filler.
Dresbach said the group will participate in 10 in-county sessions, as well as one session in Columbus learning about the local impact of the state’s executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, followed by a trip to Washington D.C. to meet with national leaders like Steve Stivers, Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown who represent the local community on a national level.
A list of current Pickaway Fellows can be found on the Pickaway County Community Foundation website.
As the principal of Westfall High School, 2016 class member Billy Dennis said he hopes to be able to pass some of his experiences in the program along to the students of the Westfall district.
“I work every day with the leaders of tomorrow,” Dennis said. “I hope to take what I learn here and use it to improve the educational process for our students to help create better leaders for this county.”
For Meagan Webb, participation in the Pickaway Fellows program is an expression of gratitude for things previous leaders have provided for the residents of Pickaway County.
“Having grown up here, I have benefited from what other leaders have done as far as scholarships and those kinds of things,” Webb said. “I feel like this is my chance to not only give back but to pay forward to my community.”
Mindi Brown said she is pleased by the diversity of the people brought together for the 2016 Fellows class and looks forward to completing the program.
“This is a very diversified group of Fellows with their own individual passions,” Brown said. “This is a great way to connect all those passions and be able to learn from each other.”
Dresbach said upon successful completion of the Pickaway Fellows program, class members will be included in a board candidate pool available to various appointing bodies and may use the moniker Pickaway Fellow.
The fund advisory board consists of Pickaway County residents from around the county who volunteer their time to assist the development of this program, she said.
This article originally appeared on The Pickaway News Journal
