Pittman and Friends Podcast
Welcome to Pittman and Friends, the curiously probing, sometimes awkward, but always revealing conversations between your host, Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman - that’s me - and whatever brave and willing public servant, community leader, or elected official I can find who has something to say that you should hear.
This podcast is provided as a public service of Anne Arundel County Government, so don’t expect me to get all partisan here. This is about the age-old art of government - of, by, and for the people.
Pittman and Friends Podcast
Kris Valerio Shock on Leadership Anne Arundel
County Executive Steuart Pittman welcomes Kris Valerio-Shock, President and CEO of Leadership Anne Arundel, for a fascinating conversation about cultivating community leadership. What begins as a simple introduction to LAA's programs quickly evolves into a deeper exploration of how intentional leadership development transforms communities from the ground up.
Valerio-Shock shares the organization's dual approach through their Flagship Program and Neighborhood Leadership Academy. While the Flagship offers a comprehensive 10-month journey through every aspect of county operations, the Neighborhood Leadership Academy specifically removes barriers for grassroots leaders who might otherwise miss development opportunities due to financial constraints or scheduling challenges. This commitment to accessibility sets LAA apart from similar organizations nationwide.
The conversation takes a compelling turn when Valerio-Shock reveals her unexpected path from Broadway actress to community leadership development. Her personal journey mirrors what she now helps others discover: finding meaningful ways to connect passion with community impact. This authenticity permeates LAA's approach, creating not just professional development but genuine fellowship among leaders who understand the unique challenges of community service.
Most striking are the tangible results emerging from LAA's programs. From Bike AAA revolutionizing the county's trail system to an online food pantry mapping tool that emerged from a class project, the organization demonstrates how structured leadership development directly translates to community problem-solving. When Pittman remarks that Anne Arundel County is often praised for its exceptional people, Valerio-Shock confirms that Leadership Anne Arundel has spent three decades ensuring that "where all the good people go" is right back into serving their community.
If you like the stories and insights in Pittman and Friends, be sure to follow the County Executive on social media and sign up for his Weekly Letter using the links below.
Weekly Letter: https://www.aacounty.org/county-executive/steuart-pittman/pittmans-pen/weekly-letter
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AACoExec
X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/AACoExec
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/AACoExec/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ArundelTV
Welcome to Pittman and Friends. The curiously probing, sometimes awkward but always revealing conversations between your host, Anne Arundel County Executive Stuart Pittman - that's me - and whatever brave and willing public servant, community leader, or elected official I can find who has something to say that you should hear. This podcast is provided as a public service of Anne Arundel County, so don't expect me to get all partisan here. This is about the age-old art of government of, by, and for the people. Al right, well, we have a treat today. I have with me my friend, Kris Valerio-Shock, who is the President and CEO of Leadership Anne Arundel.
Kris Valerio Shock:Welcome, Kris. Thank you. Very happy to be here.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, I'm kind of excited about this. Because, you know, on this podcast, I talk to elected officials. I talk to some of our department heads and I talk to community leaders. And what I think is really cool about you and Leadership Anne Arundel, is that I really see leadership as what holds it all together. Some of your folks end up elected officials. Some of your folks end up department heads. Some of your folks are community leaders, so you are sort of the incubator of it all. So, can you first tell us just a little bit about what Leadership Anne Arundel is, what its mission is, and we can talk about the scope of it?
Kris Valerio Shock:Absolutely. Sure. Leadership Anne Arundel is what its mission is and we can talk about this. Leadership Anne Arundel is a community leadership organization, and that's an important distinction because some people come to us and think corporate leadership. They think, oh, I'm going to be in a leadership program and they're thinking it's more kind of conventional leadership. But we are like community leadership programs across the country. In fact, we're members of an organization called Association of Leadership Programs, so there's programs like us all over - small, medium, and large.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Oh, I thought you were unique. You are unique.
Kris Valerio Shock:Well, we are unique. We'll get to that a little later.
Kris Valerio Shock:Yeah, we are unique, but it's a formula. Community leadership programs that really help citizens who want to have a better opportunity to engage with their community, a more kind of mindful and efficient way of engaging, join a leadership, a community leadership program. So our mission, essentially, is to provide people of diverse backgrounds with the education, the resources and the networks they need to be proactive community leaders. So that's our, that's why we were created. That's what we've been doing for 30 years. That's a community leadership program, and it's not so much the skill building in our flagship program that we're best known for, as it is that 360 degree understanding of the community and where you plug in best to have your best impact.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, it seems like the people I know who've gone through it come out saying that they met all these people. It's the connections. It really is the personal connections and knowing what the institutions are, and what they do, and who the players are. It's incredibly valuable. So you have the Leadership Academy. You have two Leadership Academies. You have the Flagship, and you have the Neighborhood Leadership Academy.
Kris Valerio Shock:So, yes. I distinguish the organization is Leadership Anne Arundel, and oftentimes people say, "oh yeah, I went through LAA. But they don't necessarily realize we have two programs. We're best known for the Flagship program and that's a program that is similar to the ones across the country. So it's a tuition-based program. So people apply to participate and if they're accepted, they pay a tuition. It typically is a 10-month program.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Or they get somebody else to pay it.
Kris Valerio Shock:Right? Well, yes, they get sponsored. Ideally, they get sponsored. We also have a tuition assistance program. So some people apply for tuition assistance. So we try to make sure that we can accept anybody who sincerely wants to participate, as opposed to having it be exclusive. So that's the flagship program, and it's a 10-month program. So you apply to participate. Ours goes September through June. Some start at the beginning of the new year and graduate for the holidays, but it's essentially that's kind of the formula is a 10-month immersion in the community. So, we start with a two-day opening retreat. We have a session on a different topic every month, so it starts with government day and goes, topics like economic development, cultural arts, education.
Kris Valerio Shock:So we kind of hit all of the key parts of a community. Anne Arundel's special because our sister programs across the country have those similar education, health and human services, all of that. We have a whole day for agriculture in South County because we have such a different. Our community is so diverse, and so we can't fit that into another specific day. So we have all of the regular days, and then our last session before the closing retreat is agriculture in South County. And it's amazing. People just can't believe we start at economic development day.
Kris Valerio Shock:We're up in Brooklyn Park, so that's the very beginning of the year.
Kris Valerio Shock:And then we close out their year literally in the farms eating strawberries.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:I remember when I was on Farm Bureau and we were the Board of Anne Arundel Farm Bureau. We were very aware of the fact that you did that, and we're always talking about ways of expanding that so that more people would get that experience of being able to to see the diversity of what goes on in the farms in Anne Arundel County and most of Maroon South County. These days, most of the rest of the county is no longer very rural. But yeah, I mean I got to say that when I came in to this job, I kind of felt like I had missed something that I didn't do. Leadership Anne Arundel, first.
Kris Valerio Shock:It's never too late.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:It's never too late. I can still do it. I've been a little busy to do it, but instead what we've done is every year we identify some folks in our office. And I know that in various departments of county government they identify folks and we send them, and they're the people who we know are future superstars, people who we know are moving up. And when I look around at my team, most of the people who are running something have been through. Maybe not most, but a lot, definitely.
Kris Valerio Shock:Well, you've sponsored several through, but then you also inherited a few. So there's some who went through before they ended up on your team, and yeah, so we love that too. And we have a new leaders event that we do every spring. That really celebrates people new in positions of leadership, and when folks are new and they graduated maybe a few years ago, it's always really exciting.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And people in the business community or businesses. Some of the banks send people.
Kris Valerio Shock:Absolutely.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:I know that some people have gone who have been entrepreneurs themselves, and they know that they want to grow a business in this county and they need connections. And so you end up with a real diversity of thought, a diversity of background, and a diversity of goals and missions, right.
Kris Valerio Shock:A hundred percent. It's a real curated class experience. So we, to your point, we have government, we have lots of corporate entities, small and large, but also the huge nonprofit community. From our largest nonprofits, our hospitals, our community college to the much smaller micro nonprofits and everything in between. And we typically have each year in our flagship program somebody representing the community college, the hospital. So there's key institutions that typically always put someone through and then we have a great, just roster of folks who come through the smaller businesses and smaller nonprofits that just add a richness to the experience. They're just coming from all different areas, and it seems like it's fun. It has to be fun. It has to be fun, or people won't take the time. You know, I mean it's wonderful to want to be able to have an impact on your community. But if it wasn't fun, people aren't gonna show up.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, I mean, you go to these, um, to go to the award ceremonies and things every year and people are. You say, you know, class of in the year and people start shouting about how they're the best and it's, you know, it's gets pretty raucous.
Kris Valerio Shock:It's true. It's true. But that, I mean.
Kris Valerio Shock:I think that's something about bringing people together who what they share in common is a desire to have a positive impact on their community, and many of them are, to your point. If they're entrepreneurs, they're running their business, they're you know, they're busy people. They're all leaders in one way or another, and so they're busy people. But they care passionately about making a difference, having an impact. And so when they find each other, it's like, it's my tribe, it's my people, and so there's just a real natural camaraderie that comes with that.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So you've been there for how long as director, or how long have you been there?
Kris Valerio Shock:Going on six years in this role. So I started in May 1st of 2019. I went through the program in 05-06 myself so I'm a graduate and went through back in, graduated in 06. So I've got my friends, my colleagues that I met back in the day they're in my class, that I still get to cross paths with all over the county, which is a lot of fun.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So tell me more about you. What brought you to the point where you went to Leadership Anne Arundel in 2005-06, and what brought you to the top job.
Kris Valerio Shock:Yeah, so I was late to my career in a way, in that my first career was in acting. So I grew up in the theater community in Annapolis in Anne Arundel County. I come from a very creative family. I have an artist dad.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, the Valerios was kind of a known entity, right. So tell us about that. Your mom was?
Kris Valerio Shock:So my mom's Shari Valerio and my dad Jerry Valerio, Gerard Valerio and actually my brother, Tony, is a musician. He plays for the Annapolis Symphony along with my sister-in-law. They're both in the symphony. Tony was in the Naval Academy Band for 23 years. So, it kind of felt like growing up. Of course, I was going to be in the arts and I had grown up in the theater. So my first career, I went to Towson University and got my degree in theater. And what do you do with a degree in theater? You go off to New York. So I stuck around here until I got my union cards and I moved to New York City with all my Actors Union cards and never thought I'd come back to. You know, grew up at Epping Forest, so grew up, born and raised in. I was loved where I grew up but was like, oh you know, I'm destined for Broadway. So I moved to New York City and was there for eight years and really loved it until it was time to go. And just it was like a switch flipped, and it was just time to come back and I never really thought of going anywhere else. If I wasn't going to be an actor and be in New York or LA, I wanted to be back in this area. But, I hadn't grown. I didn't understand really how the community worked. I knew the quality of life that I loved here and I knew what it was like to grow up here. So, I came back.
Kris Valerio Shock:First job I jumped into out of my acting career was wine sales, because what else does an actor do when you've waited tables and bartended for years?
Kris Valerio Shock:So, I sold wine in DC for a year and a half. And then I saw an ad back in the day when they had them in the paper for membership for the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce. And I applied for that role, and had the opportunity to do that for a few years and that's when I went through the Leadership Anne Arundel program.
Kris Valerio Shock:So, it was fabulous for somebody who had been away. My first decade of my adult life really didn't have the background to understand how things worked. Jumped into that program, and it was such an amazing eye-opening understanding of how things worked. I went from there to, I was with Chamber for several years, and then I went to run the Chesapeake Regional Tech Council. It was the Anne Arundel Tech Council for a while and that between the Chamber and the Tech Council, I really clicked with my love of connecting people to opportunities. So whether it was businesses to business opportunities or helping people understand really how to make those connections, and so proceeded through my career until I came to learn that the last Executive Director of Leadership Anne Arundel was retiring.
Kris Valerio Shock:And so I was at the Maryland Department of Commerce at the time, so I had landed there and was connecting people to opportunities in commerce, which was fine and it was wonderful to get to see the state overall. But I really, by that point, wanted to have more connection in my backyard, and my opinion at the time was that we have fabulous programs but that we didn't have as much for our alumni to do to connect. And so my passion in my interview process was to build out an alumni development program to really give opportunities for our alumni to bring their thought leadership to the community and to really build that out. We didn't even have a directory at the time, so I couldn't look up. We had 1,600 graduates at the time. I'm like, well, who are they?
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, and they were all friends with each other in their cohort, I'm sure.
Kris Valerio Shock:Yeah, they knew who they were, but we didn't have a visibility through the community.
Kris Valerio Shock:So that's what I intended to do.
Kris Valerio Shock:And when I started May 1st of 2019, my first year, march 12th of 2020, we were in Law and Public Safety Day at the Emergency Command Center. And it was my first year kind of learning how each of these days went and the welcome at the morning. Our guest speaker said this is where you know if there was an emergency in our community. Your county executive would greet you and you know, let you know what was going on and everybody's phones were going off. What's going on? People don't typically even look at their phones during a session day, but people are having to excuse themselves because this thing called COVID was turning into something we all had to pay attention to. It was literally about two days later that you were in the Emergency Command Center.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Oh, really, it was before that. Okay. Okay, because I was up there when we had our first case, and we had to announce that and it all started, yeah.
Kris Valerio Shock:Yeah, so we were literally in that space on March 12th, and I want to say it was something like the 14th. It was literally a couple of days later.
Kris Valerio Shock:So we like so many organizations had to learn to do Zoom and all those things, and I'm delighted to say that we never stopped. We had classes continue through. Some organizations paused and they didn't continue their classes and we really felt strongly that in times of crisis, leaders step up and not back and we would figure it out and we did. So that was just a very pivotal experience coming new into this role. So my aspirations with our alumni development took a little longer than I had hoped.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Okay, well, we won't quiz you too much on that.
Kris Valerio Shock:Oh, they're flourishing now, but it just took a little while, no, they're great now. It just took. It was longer. So I've been around for almost six years now, and that was you know coming in the door. I said we're going to have an alumni development program. Okay, Well, we're going to wait on that.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So what does it look like? You have done that.
Kris Valerio Shock:We do, yeah, committee that um. You know graduates who want to come on board and help us to plan programs that are would be of interest to our graduates, so sometimes it's graduates themselves presenting. We did a program on the opioid crisis in our county where we had, um, Dr. Geddon new into her role. So she went through the program, um prior to stepping into her her role as um, Health Officer, and so she was the moderator. And we, I remember she went, yeah, yeah. We had Ann Colt-Leitess on the panel. We had Danny Watkins from Luminous on the panel and just a recovering addict was with us, and a mother who had lost a child and just this really amazing discussion of what do we do now? How can we help move things forward?
Kris Valerio Shock:So that was one. We have a wonderful program coming up in April. That is with a retired captain from the United States Navy. She was one of the first women in flight back in the day, and so she's going to come talk to us about leadership in the course of her career and kind of what she learned from that.
Kris Valerio Shock:So those types of programs where our graduates maybe are through their flagship program, but they want an opportunity to connect with each other and to be inspired by other leaders.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So I know they go around and they hear from speakers and they visit places and they learn about things, but they also do projects, right?
Kris Valerio Shock:They do!
County Executive Steuart Pittman:What is that?
Kris Valerio Shock:So the projects are definitely a fundamental piece of the flagship experience. And so they figure out what their project is at the opening retreat and they have a whole year to make headway on it. Now, I will say when I went through the program, we came up with our own projects, which was a great experience. And actually John Corrin, when he went through, you came up with your own projects and that's where Bike AAA was born. So that came out of his flagship experience.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:I want to say that was about 10, 11 years ago now. I remember hearing that yeah, and Bike AAA is, we wouldn't be anywhere near where we are on expanding our trail network and they've been an incredibly effective organization.
Kris Valerio Shock:And that, literally he rode his bike to his opening retreat and was grousing about how, you know, things weren't the way they should be in Anne Arundel County and he found a compadre in wheel class and a few others who. That's how that took place. Since then, we did find that sometimes when people came up with their own projects, they weren't aware that some nonprofits were working in those areas and they could partner. So now we have an RFP process where our nonprofits and some of our government agencies will come to us with a problem and we have a whole RFP that they fill out and they pitch. It's kind of like Shark Tank, where they pitch at the opening retreat to encourage class members to pick their project.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Oh, really?
Kris Valerio Shock:If they don't get picked?
Kris Valerio Shock:They at least still have about 50 people in the class who know something about their organization, but most of them get picked. And so the class then has the whole year, and sometimes it's a specific problem that the nonprofit's been trying to figure out. Sometimes it's around marketing. Sometimes, it's volunteer engagement.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Does it have to be a nonprofit or can it be a county executive?
Kris Valerio Shock:Well, county departments. We've had some of our Department of Aging did a project with us once. So yeah, so it doesn't.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:What time of year does that happen?
Kris Valerio Shock:We do the RFP process over the summer. So if there's a specific agency that needs help, Nancy Hartzell is the one who really shepherds that whole process through. So, she puts the RFPs out, and we collect them over the summer and then they pitch in September, and the project wraps up in June.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:I can think of a lot of things that I could pitch to them that help us solve this problem.
Kris Valerio Shock:Yes.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:We have a lot of problems to solve.
Kris Valerio Shock:Well, we've got a lot of projects that have really delivered. There was one just as an example. I mean, in addition to the Bike AAA. The food bank came to us a few years ago. There was not a way to see where the food pantries were. So like you could be around the block from a food pantry, but you didn't know that it was there, and so there was an open source software that the project team found, where you could attach it to the website, and somebody could bring it up on their phone, look for a food pantry and go, oh, it's around the block.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:I didn't know that was, I mean. I talk about how we've got this amazing food distribution system now and you can go online. That came through Leadership Anne Arundel, it came through. Leadership had no idea that's how they found it, and it was that the product. You know, the challenge was how do we take?
Kris Valerio Shock:They didn't know it was going to be open-source software that they were fine. It was let's figure this out.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So that's one example of a project and, unfortunately, I think we're going to need it even more.
Kris Valerio Shock:Right.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, yeah. So, um, wow and I know there are a lot of others that that I remember. You had your 30th anniversary event.
Kris Valerio Shock:We did just last year, yeah.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, and, and you, you sort of went through some of those projects and and talked about them. I think you had a, didn't you have a cool video about it?
Kris Valerio Shock:Yes, we do, and that's still on our website.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So yeah, folks can go to Leadershiporg.
Kris Valerio Shock:The Neighborhood Leadership Academy.
Kris Valerio Shock:So, we've been talking all this time about our flagship program which, like I said, is similar to what's across the country. One of the things I'm proudest of is I don't know of another program like the Neighborhood Leadership Academy. So while community leadership organizations have something, so they don't all call it flagship, but something like that. The Neighborhood Leadership Academy came about because about five years into our history. So we were founded in 93, the first flagship class graduated in 94. And about five years later, a community activist named Bertina Nick, who was very active in the Stanton Community Center area, the old Fourth Ward. Came to LAA and said it's great that you're preparing these leaders, but it's a Thursday during the week and there's a price tag to it. There's a lot of grassroots leaders who simply can't take that time off of work or they can't afford it. How are you going to help our grassroots community?
Kris Valerio Shock:So the flagship program at the time, the leadership, the board leadership, the executive director, got together with multiple partners and researched to bring together a program called the Neighborhood Leadership Academy. It is instead of the key areas that we described with Flagship. It's really skill building. So it's about communication, it's about accessing resources. It's about networking. So that has that very much in common with Flagship. It's about understanding the relationships and who you need to know to be able to make the connections. It really is an on-ramp to the broader leadership community for our grassroots leaders. So it's taking some of those barriers away so that they can access the resources that will help their communities.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So what do the numbers look like, both for flagship and neighborhood leadership each year?
Kris Valerio Shock:So the Neighborhood Leadership Academy is smaller by design. It's a six-month program, so it starts where flagship starts in September and graduates in June. Neighborhood Leadership Academy starts in January and graduates in June. It's a full Saturday out of the month, so they're just six sessions, but they're 10 am to 4 pm on topics like communication, conflict resolution, understanding, networks, accessing resources. So we have various participants ACDS, United Way. Different giving circles come in and talk about how to get funds for some of the grassroots initiatives, and there's about 20 to 25 people in the Neighborhood Leadership Academy, so there's 50 in a flagship class.
Kris Valerio Shock:Yeah, this year's class is 22 people.
Kris Valerio Shock:So we've just had two of our sessions so far.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And 50 in flagship.
Kris Valerio Shock:And 50 in flagship.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, that's big.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And the reason I'm asking all these questions, folks who are listening. I'm asking these questions so that you who are listening can think about whether this is something you would want to apply for. I'm sure you have plenty of applicants.
Kris Valerio Shock:But yeah, we're always looking.
Kris Valerio Shock:I mean again, there are people who come across us in so many different ways. We're very much a referral-driven. Lots of people who are best source is people who have been through our programs who will just rave about it to their network and bringing people in. We, of course, advertise in all the usual places you would imagine, and you know social media and all of those things. But you never know. People come across us and had no idea that this opportunity existed.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, yeah. You know, it know, to me as a county leader and as a former community organizer, a decade of doing that, and we did your podcast not long ago.
Kris Valerio Shock:Yes, folks can find you on our podcast.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, yeah, but it's so inspiring to me that you even do this and I. I guess it's hard to measure the impact of it, but I can tell you that a lot of people who look at Anne Arundel County and deal with at least our government. But a lot of things about our county, say you have such good people, and I do think that Leadership Anne Arundel has something to do with that.
Kris Valerio Shock:Well, the good people find the good people. I mean, it's like there is actually. Is it where all the good people go? I think it's a Jack Johnson song that I've got all the time, because that, you know, LAA is where a lot of the good people go. Because they, you know, it is that community, and specifically for leaders.
Kris Valerio Shock:Leadership, as you well know, is hard. It can be lonely, and so oftentimes, it's just a community where they don't even necessarily have to tell each other all of what's going on in their own leadership roles. But they've got somebody that has had similar challenges that they just have a fellowship with. And same thing again, you know, with the Neighborhood Leadership Academy. It's that grassroots people who are in the trenches doing the afterschool programs for the kids, and you know, and they cross, connect with each other and share resources, share ideas, and it just is this fellowship that they're not alone. You know, it's just hard, hard work, and so that's probably my very favorite thing about it. Is just the community that comes together, that they find that fellowship with each other, and know that they have support.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So, as the boss, what are your challenges? What are you looking to do to make it bigger, better, improve it, fund it? I'm sure funding is always an issue.
Kris Valerio Shock:Yeah, funding is always challenging.
Kris Valerio Shock:I mean, so we're the organization of organizations. So we fundraise, like everybody does, but our members are the Lighthouse Shelter and Hospice and all of these really tremendously worthwhile organizations to support, and so when we come out to reach out for support as well, sometimes it's hard because we're competing with our, our, you know members and all of that. So it's challenging to fundraise. We are in a point right now where we're trying to get to a second full- time person. You asked me my title earlier, which I always kind of have a little bit of a giggle because I'm the only full time employee.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So I'm president and CEO of this large group.
Kris Valerio Shock:Yeah, it's chief cook and bottle washer, but we have a very just, enthusiastic, dynamic part time team. We'd like to get to a second full time person next year, and I don't see this organization as ever being one where you have a dozen people on staff. I think two full time people and a couple of part time people is a great size for us. But getting from you know one full- time to two full- time in this climate is really challenging. Yeah, I did the same thing when I worked with the Chesapeake Regional Tech Council. We went from one full timer to four full timers and I sometimes look back at that. I'm sure how we did that compared to today. It's just challenging in that way. So we are planning for fiscal 26 to have a second full-time role and that should really help us.
Kris Valerio Shock:So much of what we do is that introductions is the networking is the connections, and so that's a real consultative process. It takes time to introduce people to people and the scheduling and all of that that goes with that. It's not something you can automate very easily, so that is very time-consuming. So I look forward to having another person to manage a lot of the program logistics so that I can spend more time doing that specific, connecting and building those programs that draw in not just our graduates and our leaders but people across the community who are interested in leadership and really have a place to gather.
Kris Valerio Shock:I like to think of LAA as the nexus of leadership for Anne Arundel County. It's like where all those places connect, and so that's to me what's next is growing a mindful leadership program where the community at large can come and participate until it makes sense for them to go through the program. Because, like yourself, some people haven't had time yet, but you should be able to come to this leadership speaker series that we're doing with Captain Barbara Bell about her experience from the Navy through now and the more people from the general public who can come and cross-pollinate. Sooner or later, it'll be time for them to go through NLA or flagship, and it just makes the whole community richer.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So you would do more events connecting people if you had more resources?
Kris Valerio Shock:Right, just more more of cross-connecting Neighborhood Leadership Academy with Flagship with with the leadership community overall. One thing that a lot of people don't know actually, is we did start a couple of years ago an affiliate membership program so that people have been through a program like ours somewhere else. And they come to the county. Can also cross-pollinate with LAA. So, folks have been through, you know, a leadership program in Chicago or a leadership program you know somewhere else, and they can be part of our community.
Kris Valerio Shock:So, building on that and just making sure that we are the place when people want inspiration around leadership. Whether they have the time to go through the flagship program today or not, they have a community that they can connect with.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So, I know there's another event that I go to every year. I think it's called New Leaders.
Kris Valerio Shock:The New Leaders Celebration that's at Carroll's Creek Cafe year over year. It used to be an evening event, but we shifted it to a breakfast, actually during COVID, because we wanted to be able to go out on their beautiful deck and just enjoy the fresh air and all of that. So it's usually right as springtime is good, so people just can't wait to get out in the beautiful Annapolis air.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So what's a new leader?
Kris Valerio Shock:So a new leader is anybody who's come into their new role within the last year. That serves Anne Arundel County in some way. So some of it's government. Some people are stepping into a new government role. There's education, health care, corporate. We take nominations from the nonprofits, the whole gamut. We take nominations from anyone throughout the county so you don't have to have been through any of our programs to nominate or to be a nominee. So it's really one of our outreach programs where we're helping the community get to connect with people that they should know are new in their roles. So we take nominations across the board, and then we celebrate 20 to 25 people.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So there's only so much time in the morning that people have breakfast, so we cut it off around 25.
Kris Valerio Shock:But it's just a really lovely. I mean, people get to network and just get to go say a quick hello and welcome to people who are new in their role. And it's so fun for the people who have stepped into. Some of them are. It's a promotion, so it's in something that they've been, an organization they've been in. But it's a next step and some of them are brand new to the community. We get people who've come to Anne Arundel County to be new in a role so they get a really warm welcome.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, it's kind of brilliant because you come into a new role and you know that you're being told that you're actually a leader in the community and you should connect with all the other leaders. And that is sort of surprising to some people. And I know we've had people, department heads and things who've been invited to do that, or maybe we've nominated them and yeah, it's a big deal.
Kris Valerio Shock:Yeah, it's really fun, and so the nomination period is always like around from the beginning of the year until this year, March 14th. I guess it ends, but it's something to have in mind for future years, even if folks hear this once we're past that deadline. If you think of the new year, just thinking of your team is anybody new on our team since March of last year? And just knowing that that's an opportunity to nominate them.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Good, and then so the timeline for the rest of it, if people want to apply for flagship or neighborhood leadership flagship.
Kris Valerio Shock:We're typically always building the class from accepting nomination, accepting applications from January through March. So, um, March 31st is the deadline we do collect, uh, typically waitlist applications too. So, even if March 31st passes, it's good if people, if it's the time is right to apply, they should still apply.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So, like now, right now. Hurry up, okay.
Kris Valerio Shock:Right now through March 31st. And again, they can definitely always reach out to us if they miss that deadline and we can just see whether there's any wait list opportunity. But so flagship always the first part of the year we confirm the class around June. We don't announce it until the end of the opening retreat because people have to get through that retreat to be sure that they're part of the class.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:You've got to show up once.
Kris Valerio Shock:You've got to show up. So we do a big announcement in September of who the class is, and then we do a really fun kickoff event at the Annapolis Maritime Museum to celebrate the class. So people come out past classes. Come out and welcome the new class.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Now, why do they have so much fun? It's pretty fun.
Kris Valerio Shock:And then at that time, so Neighborhood Leadership Academy we take applications in the fall. So from October through mid-December we take applications for NLA, and then we announce the class at the beginning of January and they go through. But both classes graduate together at the Tribute to Community Leadership in June.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Right, so that's the big shebang. So that's June, right, so that's the big shebang. So that's June and anybody can go to that, right, anybody can go to that.
Kris Valerio Shock:Yeah, I mean, especially if people are new to this community. I mean, really anybody, but especially people new to the community who just really want to kind of get the landscape of who's who we do. An Excellence in Leadership Award each year and a Distinguished Graduate Award each year. So in addition to current classes that are graduating, it's just a great way to mix it up and meet the people that you want to know.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, it's fun, so okay. So folks, where do they go? There's obviously your website.
Kris Valerio Shock:Leadership AA dot org. All the details are there, but of course, we're on Facebook and Instagram. And, yeah, you can find our stuff on the web like it is.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Al right, Leadership aa dot org. I hope people go there, because I really think that this is a great way to. I know there's so many people who want to engage in their community and they all have a different reason and it's so important to have vehicles for people to do it. And you know, we try to do that in our work as well. Our constituent services folks are doing that all the time. That's why we call it community engagement and constituent services. But thank you for what you do, and thank you for coming on and talking about it.
Kris Valerio Shock:Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity. Really grateful.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Alright.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Well, if you are listening to this and there's a little subscribe button on whatever device you have, touch it and magically, you can put in your email address and we'll let you know who the next guest is and what's coming up. Thanks,
