Rachel Landis, coordinator of the Environmental Center at Fort Lewis College, will participate in the Community Resource Center’s statewide 2016 Nonprofit Leadership & Management Program.
Rachel Landis, coordinator of the Environmental Center at Fort Lewis College, will participate in the Community Resource Center’s statewide 2016 Nonprofit Leadership & Management Program.Courtesy of Rachel Landis

Rachel Landis, the coordinator of the Fort Lewis College Environmental Center, has been selected to join 21 nonprofit leaders from organizations across the state for training to increase their effectiveness in the challenging world of nonprofits.

The Nonprofit Leadership & Management Program, run by the Community Resource Center in Denver, has been in existence for 26 years. It has graduated more than 700 leaders in that period.

“We’re a really vision-driven organization, founded in values and with firm ethics,” Landis said. “I want help in learning to run an organization to that tune.”

Landis can look forward to nine months of learning best practices in the field and building a network of colleagues to continue supporting her in her endeavors at the college, which include helping make the FLC campus carbon-neutral. The group will have classes and exercises on topics such as advocacy and public policy, financial management, how to manage a board of directors, inclusiveness and personnel management.

“Part of it is identifying your own personal management style and utilizing it best for your organization,” Landis said. “For me, personally, I have always worked in education, but for a lot of work here at the center, we are truly a nonprofit, and I’m looking forward to learning best practices in the nonprofit sector.”

While some are attending on scholarships from the Anschutz Family Foundation, the Environmental Center accrued funds from several fundraisers to pay Landis’ tuition.

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If you go

The Environmental Center at Fort Lewis College is holding a Campus Sustainability Summit from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Student Union Ballroom. It will include workshops, a panel discussion and a dinner.
Keynote speaker Patrick Cummins, an FLC alumnus and a senior policy advisor and lead of the Western States Clean Power Plan Initiative, will speak at 5:15 p.m.
Registration is open for the Essentials for Thriving Nonprofits, to be held April 29. The cost is $55 and includes lunch as well as workshops on financial management, board development, marketing and public relations and human resources. Visit bit.ly/1PBOKQh to learn more or to register.