DU Graduates Community Leaders

Fifteen community members have become the second group to complete Dominican University’s Brennan School of Business Community Leadership Program.

Three groups presented their final projects on problem-solving in the community in Parmer Hall, including mapping and shared services for not-for-profit organizations, student advisories in high schools and childhood obesity.

After presentations, the participants attended a luncheon and completion ceremony, where Brennan School of Business Dean Arvid Johnson called on the participants to use what they learned to help solve problems in the community if they are asked to do so.

Johnson then thanked the participant’s employers for letting their employees take the time off needed to complete the program.

Program co-facilitator Ron Bacci said the goal of the program, in conjunction with the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation and the Communityworks Advisory Board, is to “take people involved in the community and make them better leaders.”

The nine-month program teaches creative problem solving, developing talent, negotiation, conflict resolution, project management and strategic planning, according to a press release.

Participants meet once-a-month, during which community leaders come to speak to the group, co-facilitator Jean Bruno said. Bruno, who called the program graduates “gangbusters,” developed the program’s content and monitored progress alongside Bacci.

Bacci said taking the sessions from six months during the first Community Leadership Program, to nine months for the second group “gave the participants more time to develop presentations and hear more topics.”

Karen Faust, president and owner of The Nauset Group, worked on the high school student advisory project.

A student advisory takes place “in a school setting, with a small group of kids, on a regularly scheduled basis,” she said.

Advisories can “provide a caring environment for academic and social guidance and support, and character and leadership development” for students, according to the group’s final presentation.

The 2010-11 Community Leadership Program participants: