LEONARDTOWN, Md. – April 19, 2016: On March 31, 2016, the Leadership Southern Maryland (LSM) Class of 2016 participated in the sixth of nine educational sessions – Education – sponsored by the Chick-fil-A Foundation. The day began with an introduction and welcome by Executive Director Helen Mattingly Wernecke and Lead Advocate Karen O’Connor LSM ’10 at the Calvert Library in Prince Frederick, Maryland. The class experienced an educational “town hall” made up of 29 organizations and schools, all providing examples of the work, products and people associated with education in our region. The town hall was facilitated by Mary Anne Bowman LSM’14. It was followed by a tour of the library by Sara Stephenson.
In the afternoon, Karen Smith Hupp LSM’15 facilitated a panel discussion with senior administrators from College of Southern Maryland (Dr. Brad Gottfried), St. Mary’s College of Maryland (Mr. Chip Jackson LSM’13), and Southern Maryland Higher Education Center (Dr. Mel Powell) on the changing role of higher education in meeting the employment and training needs for Southern Maryland. Following this, the class members had a chance to hear about the public school systems’ budgets, facilities, competences, assessments, and challenges from the three county public school superintendents: Dr. Dan Curry (Calvert), Dr. Kimberly Hill (Charles), and Mr. Scott Smith (St. Mary’s). A panel of ten high school students from the three counties rounded out the afternoon, offering their perspective on the positives and negatives of their high school education. A Q&A with the students was facilitated by Sharmella Riggs LSM’15.
Leadership Southern Maryland is a nine-month tuition-based program and is designed and dedicated to educate and inspire a diverse group of current and emerging leaders to create collaborations and partnerships to impact the community needs of Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s counties and incorporates a cross-section of the region to include diversity of geographic location, profession, ethnicity and gender.
Leadership Southern Maryland is a 501(c)(3) organization by the Internal Revenue Service (EIN#26-2989381). Contributions are deductible as charitable contributions to the extent permitted by law.
For more information, please contact the Helen Mattingly Wernecke, Executive Director Leadership Southern Maryland, 240-725-5469 via email helen@leadershipsomd.org or visit devaney.adminprotools.com.
