2014 San Diego Leadership Alliance Fellow Jeff Graves has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Lambda Archives, an organization that collects, preserves, and teaches the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual,and transgender people in the San Diego and Northern Baja California region.  

"There is no doubt that my gained experience, skills and overall participation with the San Diego Leadership Alliance has played a positive role and will continue to help me achieve my goals in moving forward a progressive agenda via community activism in San Diego," Graves says.  

In its mission to develop the next generation of progressive leaders in San Diego, the SDLA encourages and equips Fellows with the skills necessary to join boards and commissions.   

More information on the Lambda Archives can be found at their website, http://www.lambdaarchives.us/.  

San Diego CityBeat recently published its Drink Issue where they "booze it up with seven local VIPs."  2014 SDLA Fellow Sam Ollinger happens to be one of those VIPS!  Read what she has to say to CityBeat's Alex Zaragoza here.  

By Hilary Morefield

The spring sun shone brightly through the windows of Shawna’s car as we stepped out into the end of 37th Street in Normal Heights. Today was the canvassing session of the Institute, where the fellows would get the opportunity to get to have face-to-face contact with community members about a particular issue. I quietly trailed SDLA Fellows Luis Osuna and Shawna Held as they made their way down the block, trying to make sense of the address list in hand.

By Hilary Morefield

As soon as I arrived at the seventh session of the Institute, I could see the SDLA fellows had already eagerly started into an engaging and informative day of talks on public policy. After an active team building break outside to kick off the mid-morning, the group jumped into discussions of all kind of policy approaches, ranging from healthcare to environmental impacts and coalition building. The day served as a continuation of the public policy discussion in the 3rd session of the Institute.

By Hilary Morefield

A consultant, a fundraiser, and a rabbi. Not usually the first figures you have in mind as experts on the field of communication.However, for the Communications session of the Institute, SDLA took the path of the less obvious and opted to pull from a diverse spectrum of experience and expertise, making it an interesting and informative jump from speaker to speaker throughout the day.

By Hilary Morefield

When Lorena Gon­za­lez stepped into the room for our fifth ses­sion, her pres­ence imme­di­ately com­manded atten­tion. The assemblywoman’s con­fi­dent, hilar­i­ous and can­did approach had the full room from her first line. Gon­za­lez has been a long-​time ally of SDLA and has spo­ken to past fel­lows on numer­ous occa­sions regard­ing her work as the secretary-​treasurer and CEO of the San Diego-​Imperial Coun­ties Labor Coun­cil, AFL-​CIO but this was her first time speak­ing at the insti­tute as an elected offi­cial. For this ses­sion, she approached the con­ver­sa­tion on a more per­sonal level, dis­cussing her expe­ri­ences as a young pro­gres­sive in her 20s, her career and the some of the lessons she learned along the way.

By Hilary Morefield

For our forth Insti­tute ses­sion, the group delved head first into pub­lic speak­ing strate­gies and com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills. The Fel­lows worked together to share small sto­ries with each other and con­struct them into larger pieces to nar­rate their per­sonal mis­sions. At the end of the day, each of the fel­lows pre­sented a short speech in front of the entire group, fac­ing the chal­lenges of speak­ing to inspire as well as deal­ing with con­flict res­o­lu­tion in pub­lic presentation.

By Hilary Morefield

For his fifth con­sec­u­tive year, San Diego Interim Mayor Todd Glo­ria spoke to our Insti­tute Fel­lows on Feb­ru­ary 8th, shar­ing his advice and enthusiasm with the class. Glo­ria has returned every year to speak with the Fel­lows at the Insti­tute since its found­ing in 2010.

The 2014 SDLA Institute kicked off last weekend. Meet our 2014 Fellows!

The Fellows were selected from an incredibly qualified, inspiring, and unprecedentedly large pool of emerging progressive leaders. Through the Institute, they will develop the skills, opportunities, and relationships needed to make positive change in San Diego.