Leadership Greenville still shapes community leaders after 50 years

Greenville wouldn’t be the city it is today without the guidance and contributions of many influential community leaders.

With the rise of economic development in the city, the Greenville Chamber of Commerce in 1973 created a flagship program called Leadership Greenville. The initiative was designed to identify leaders in the community, develop leadership skills, and make participants aware of how to get engaged in community issues.

Fifty years later, the program’s mission remains the same. Around 2,400 people have graduated from Leadership Greenville since its inaugural year.

The program’s anniversary class consists of 52 participants. Throughout the 10-month program, the class will celebrate the program’s longstanding impact.

Learning

Leadership Greenville has a new director steering the program in its 50th year.

Cheryl Garrison, executive director of Greenville Chamber Foundation and director of talent and leadership, stepped into the role after completing the program last year. She brings with her a new three-part training framework that focuses on:

Leadership of self
Leadership with others
Leadership within community

“All of those three things feed each other,” Garrison said.

The program will cover a variety of topics including communication, economic development, talent and workforce, education and barriers around poverty, homelessness, transportation, and child care.

“This was a really great opportunity to learn more about where Greenville has been in the past and where it’s headed in the future,” said Matthew Hubbard, founder and co-owner of Group Therapy Pub & Playground and a current class member of Leadership Greenville.

The class will graduate in May 2024. A party to celebrate the program’s 50-year anniversary will be held shortly after.

Networking

Leadership Greenville participants must complete a lengthy application process which includes essays, professional resumes and community involvement. Garrison said around 75 to 80 applications are received each year.

“We want to have a wide diversity in our class but beyond the typical race, age, ethnicity diversity,” Garrison said. “We’re really looking for diversity of sector.”

The current class consists of leaders from nonprofits, businesses, government offices, educational institutions and more.

One of Leadership Greenville’s greatest strengths is networking. This was what drew Victoria Novak, Greenville Literacy Association’s executive director, to apply to the program.

“Now what I’m seeing is there’s such a wide variety of skill sets in the room with these individuals that I’m sitting alongside,” Novak said. “I’m learning so much more about myself as a leader — my personality, my behaviors, my skill set and the challenges of understanding our community.”

Serving

A key part of Leadership Greenville’s programming is community-service projects. Each year, the class reviews and selects projects submitted by local nonprofits. The projects vary greatly, and the class is split into groups to complete each project.

“Over the last few years, the classes have had two projects,” Garrison said. “When the class size was even larger, sometimes they did three.”

Leadership Greenville’s 50th class recently selected its two service projects:

Help Rebuild Upstate secure funding for four ramps in its pilot program to build ramps for low-income homeowners. Volunteers from the class will hopefully install two ramps.
Assist YouthBASE with playground upgrades and exterior-entrance improvements.

“One of my favorite things about that process was just hearing from the organizations in the community that needed help and understanding what kind of impact we could make,” Hubbard said.

Through service projects and other programming initiatives, Leadership Greenville has continued to shape impactful leaders who contribute to the betterment of the community. Garrison said there is more to come in the future.

“We’re excited to announce that we are going to have a new program that will be launching hopefully 2025 that will elevate the state’s leadership-development opportunities,” Garrison said. “It will have an incredible impact on our community and so it’s going to be sort of a next-level leadership program.”