TULSA, Okla. — This month, the Coffee Bunker and Leadership Tulsa are teaming up to hold a single-day leadership development seminar for veterans and their spouses.
"Our mission as an organization is to identify, develop, and connect diverse leaders who make an impact in our Tulsa through service," Marcia Bruno-Todd, executive director of Leadership Tulsa, said. "And I think a very, very important leader that we need to focus on is our veteran community."
Bruno-Todd said that when veterans are leaders in the community, it is good for everyone.
"I think Tulsa would be a better Tulsa if we invest in our veterans," Bruno-Todd said.
Bruno-Todd said veterans and their families committed to service. In her opinion, to learn from and honor that commitment, Leadership Tulsa and Coffee Bunker want to connect them with leadership opportunities across the city of Tulsa.
The seminar is aimed at those in the workforce who want to elevate their skills to be in leadership positions or those who wish to gain more training while in the university sector.
"What we're hoping to get is that they get they walk away with a skill or two, they can use implement, and then come back to us and tell us again, real-time feedback, that's what matters," Dr. Robby Hedrick, director of transition services for the Coffee Bunker, said.
Dr. Hedrick, a Veteran himself, said that feedback will help create a more extensive program in collaboration with Leadership Tulsa.
"We want to leverage each other's strengths and build upon that we want to complete one another not compete with one another and bring a total product a total package to the city of Tulsa that will make a greater impact and neither one of us could do it alone," Dr. Hedrick said.
The seminar will have leadership and team development networking, information on how to collaborate, and a discussion of performance goals versus growth goals, among other topics.
"Ultimately, we'll wrap it up with personal reflection to really deep dive into that, evaluate that experience and be able to walk away with how they're going to apply it going back to their organizations," Dr. Hedrick said.
The idea is to use that knowledge to help not only their organizations but our neighborhoods as well.
"It makes the community stronger, makes the community better, as well as, I would say, individually fulfilling as they get to know and integrate into a community get to know other aspects that they normally wouldn't see," Dr. Hedrick said.
The first L-T Elevate: Empowering Veterans for Success is filled, but the organizations hope to start a more extensive program soon.
In the meantime, Leadership Tulsa has other opportunities to expand your leadership goals.
Before joining Coffee Bunker, Dr. Hedrick went through a leadership program called "LT 360" with Leadership Tulsa.
"It's a 360 view of the entire city of Tulsa," Bruno-Todd said. "You get to see through the different geographic regions, our history, our challenges, our opportunities, and ways to get plugged in."
Toward the end of the program, Dr. Hedrick chose to do an internship with the Coffee Bunker.
"I was assigned to the Coffee Bunker, which I didn't know was there at all; again, being a Veteran in Tulsa, I was unaware of its existence and what they did," Dr. Hedrick said. "So, I did my board internship, just fell in love with the mission and the people there, and really got to know them."
After the internship, Dr. Hedrick continued with his job and finished his degree before receiving a call from Dr. Michael Horton, executive director of the Coffee Bunker.
So, Dr. Hedrick knows first-hand how much these programs can help.
"Each one of these programs had the opportunity to boost you personally, professionally, exponentially, if you want to take advantage of it and optimize that opportunity," Dr. Hedrick said.
Leadership Tulsa also hosts Thrive Tulsa, Hispanic Leadership Institute, New Voices, LT Represent, and Tulsa Changemakers.
For more details on the programs at Leadership Tulsa, visit the organization's website here.
See previous 2 News Oklahoma news stories with Coffee Bunker here.
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