Community members creating a thriving Whidbey Island.

If you want to join a network of community leaders who share a common goal of community stewardship, sign up for the coming Leadership Whidbey program year.

The application period for the class of 2025 is open now through May 24.

Our Mission

Inspire, connect, and catalyze leaders to engage in creating a thriving Whidbey Island

Each Fall, Leadership Whidbey selects up to twenty applicants representing the private, public, and non-profit sectors across Whidbey Island for a seven-month intensive leadership development program. Our goal is to create a network of leaders whose increased awareness and commitment to serve our communities will energize and shape Whidbey Island’s future.

Guiding Principles and Themes for Leadership Whidbey:

1. Deepen Connection to Whidbey Island: recognize histories & legacies; explore ecology; discover built environment & institutions; connect to interpersonal/organizational networks.

2. Develop Self: clarify values; engage in reflective leadership practice; recognize creative and reactive traits; develop vision and find voice.

3. Build Capacity to work with others: develop teams; engage difference; lean into difficult conversations; practice through Community Adaptive Leadership Lab (CALL).

4. Embrace Complexity and Uncertainty: identify systemic issues and inequality; apply adaptive leadership frames; seek justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

5.       Take Collective Action: communicate vision; engage relationships and resources to co-create; create a more just, healthy, and sustainable future.