Leadership Training

Seven Brunswick County residents graduate from the 2022-23 Leadership Brunswick County program.

After a three-year break due to COVID-19, Leadership Brunswick County celebrated the graduation of seven individuals from the nine-month program. Joe Stanley, vice president of Joe & Moe’s Auto Services and president of Joe’s Photography, gave an inspiring keynote address during the 2022-2023 Leadership Brunswick County Graduation Ceremony. His message focused on the importance of listening to those with viewpoints other than your own, leading from the trenches and the importance of giving back to your community.

Leadership Brunswick County is a program sponsored by Brunswick Community College and the Brunswick County, North Brunswick and Southport-Oak Island Area chambers of commerce to develop corps of informed, committed and qualified individuals capable of providing dynamic leadership for Brunswick County. It is designed to identify highly motivated, emerging leaders and educate them about the needs of our community as well as the dynamics of social and economic changes.

The 2022-23 Leadership Brunswick County graduates are Allayna Dail, City of Southport; Dorothy Dutton, City of Southport; Traci Kelly, Ocean Isle Museum Foundation; Donna McMillan-Aiken, First National Bank; Amber Merklinger, Brunswick County Government; Catherine “Kate” Mohr, Dosher Memorial Hospital and Rita Tatum Corning Credit Union.

To graduate from Leadership Brunswick County, participants were required to attend an orientation retreat, a minimum of six sessions from the eight sessions held between October and April, attend one regular municipal or county meeting, attend three enrichment activities provided by a chamber, attend the Al- County Chamber Business Networking After Hours hosted by Brunswick Community College and volunteer a minimum of 10 hours for a nonprofit organization in our community.

Applications to participate in the 2023-24 Leadership Brunswick County program will be available in late July. To receive an application or for more information, contact Brunswick County Chamber of Commerce at (910) 754-6644, North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce at (910) 383-0553 or Southport Oak Island Area Chamber of Commerce at (910) 457-6964.