As Leadership Spokane’s Class of 2015 prepares to take flight this fall, it will be under the guidance of a new captain. 

Or more accurately, a colonel. 

Col. Brian Newberry, who recently retired from the U.S. Air Force after serving most recently as wing commander at Fairchild Air Force Base, has taken over as executive director at Leadership Spokane, his first civilian role after 23 years in the military. He has replaced Linda Finney, who retired from the organization after leading it for 15 years. 

A month into the position, Newberry describes the organization as stable. 

“There will be course corrections, but no U-turns,” he says. “Fortunately, Linda left us a great template here.”

However, he says, challenges he faces include boosting the organization’s fundraising efforts, quantifying the program’s value to the business community, bolstering its alumni network, and maintaining consistency with an all-new staff. 

Founded in 1982, Leadership Spokane teaches what it refers to as servant-leadership skills to Spokane-area business and civic professionals through a series of day-long classes conducted monthly from September to June. The incoming class has 51 students, which compares with an average range of 40 to 50 participants, Newberry says. The organization’s youth program, Youth Leadership Spokane, has 28 high schoolers enrolled for this fall, which is a typical size, he says. 

The 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, located on the second floor of the Spokane Regional Business Center, at 801 W. Riverside downtown, has an annual budget of just over $200,000, and Newberry says income currently is in line with expenses. 

About 70 percent of the organization’s revenue comes from tuition, which is $3,000 for adults and $125 for youth. Sponsorships generate the balance of its revenue, and Newberry says he would like sponsors to commit more money over longer periods of time. Ideally, he says, the organization could increase sponsorships so they account for 40 percent to 50 percent of its annual budget.

“What I think I owe the business community is, what is the bang for the buck?” Newberry says. “And that’s hard, because measuring leadership is hard.”

To that end, however, he says he plans to survey extensively the incoming class, as well as last year’s group of participants in the hopes of building a case study as to the effectiveness of Leadership Spokane’s program. 

He says, “With that data, I can go to sponsors and say, ‘This is what you get. This is what you get if you invest in leadership in this community.”

Lance Kissler, eBusiness development officer for Liberty Lake-based Spokane Teachers Credit Union who joined the Leadership Spokane board of directors after finishing the program last year, says the program has a strong curriculum, but the organization is improving the way it ties lessons to participants’ professions. 

“I think members of the business community will like what we do to reinforce some of the practical business applications,” he says.

For example, the organization has a communications lesson each year. Last year, Kissler says, it simulated a communications crisis through which students had to come up with a response to a simulated data breach and go through an interview with a television reporter. He says participants were then able to return to their places or of work and review—or develop—crisis-communication plans.

Newberry says Leadership Spokane has hired a training director, Jaxon Riley, who will be developing class programs, although the basic curriculum infrastructure that the organization has been using will remain intact.

In addition to boosting its fundraising and proving its value, Leadership Spokane wants to form a stronger connection with its alumni. Newberry points out that more than 1,100 people have gone through the program, and many of them are still working in the Spokane area. 

He says the organization has strong ties with recent graduates. However, he says, “As you get farther out, we lose that connection. I’m looking at the alumni network to see how we can keep it connected and leverage it to a degree.”

Finney says she too would like to see the Leadership Spokane alumni develop some kind of legacy project or to be involved in some sort of initiative. 

“I’d like the alumni association to be a player in Spokane,” she says. “I’d like to see it grow and be powerful.”

In addition to Finney’s departure, the organization’s longtime executive assistant—and its only other employee when Finney worked there—left earlier this year. Elisha Heath has assumed that role for the organization.

Finney says the organization will face challenges with a full turnover in personnel, but that she thinks the board hired the right people.

“I’m going to be sleeping very well,” she says. “I worked hard at Leadership Spokane, and I’m pleased to be turning the organization over to such talented folks.”

Newberry, a Colorado native and a graduate of the Air Force Academy, moved to Spokane in 2012 to become wing commander at Fairchild Air Force Base. He previously had served as group commander at Manas Air Base, in Kyrgyzstan, and as squadron commander at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, in western Washington. 

A pilot with more than 4,000 hours of flying time, Newberry says he had positive impressions of Spokane before moving here. He’d stayed at a pet-friendly hotel in Spokane Valley en route to McChord in the mid-2000s, which he remembered fondly, and his sons competed in a national cross-country meet here, which was another positive trip. Also, while in Kyrgyzstan, he received a care package from a Lewis & Clark High School senior. 

“Those first impressions of Spokane are among the reasons I’m sitting here today,” he says. “I’ve seen this as a special place with a patriotic heart.”

Newberry says he’s always viewed himself as a servant leader and welcomed the opportunity to lead a like-minded organization.

“I told the incoming class, ‘Ultimately, I want you to be good citizens,’” Newberry says. “If I can make good citizens, I’m still wearing the uniform.”