Class of 2020 Kicks Off at Annual Retreat

Meaghan Lewis, Director of Leadership Development for the Wilmington Chamber, will be documenting the adventures of Leadership Wilmington Class of 2020. Follow along with the class through social media using the hashtag #LeadILM2020, and in our weekly Chamber newsletter. To sign up for our email newsletter, email michelle@wilmingtonchamber.org.


Every year Leadership Wilmington includes an overnight retreat to kick off the program. The retreat’s purpose is to help classmates get to know each other outside of Wilmington’s city limits. Class members can fully disconnect from their day-to-day responsibilities and dive into the eight-month program that lies ahead.

The class of 2020 met this year at Fort Caswell in Oak Island and made the most of their time together!  

Programming over the two-day retreat included leadership development training from District C. District C’s workshop trains individuals on how to work together in diverse teams to solve complex problems. As alumni of Leadership Wilmington know well, planning and executing Work on Wilmington is certainly complex. To that end, the class had a robust discussion on how they plan to add additional value to Work on Wilmington while preserving this annual day of service the community needs and looks forward to every year. The class is also committed to developing processes for Work on Wilmington that sets up future classes for success.

The class also heard from Anne Sorhagen, Southeast Regional Director of the New Hanover County Community Foundation (NHCCF) about local grant opportunities and community needs. NHCCF has been serving the community since 1987 and is led by a local volunteer advisory board, including Leadership Wilmington alumni like Kristi Sullivan, Market Leader, Vice President at BB&T, who joined Anne for the presentation.

I briefly shared data from Dr. Chris Prentice, Associate Professor and MPA Director at UNCW, on the nonprofit environment and philanthropic giving in New Hanover County compared to our “sister counties” in Brunswick and Buncombe. There are stark comparisons in New Hanover when looking at the dollars per capita by nonprofit entities. We’ll plan to have Dr. Prentice visit the class at another session to dive deeper into the data and explain why this is.

Overall, I hope the class found the retreat as motivating as I did about the year ahead!