Home / Interviews / Leanna Clark
LD Helps Shine a Light on Philanthropic Goals
Leanna Clark, Senior VP of Corporate Communications, IMA Financial; Executive Director, IMA Foundation
Leadership Denver Class of 2000
William Butler Yeats famously wrote that “Education is not the filling of a pail. It is the lighting of a fire.” One Leadership Denver (LD) graduate whose LD education turned into a brilliant blaze is Leanna Clark, who has been an entrepreneur, small-business owner and community trustee during the past decade.
“LD absolutely ‘turned the light on’ for me with regard to my community involvement efforts,” Clark remembers. “It helped me focus on where I could make a difference and have the greatest impact. For me this has been public education. Education Day, and the terrific background we received on public education as part of LD, helped me determine that this was the area where I wanted to concentrate in terms of my work to give back to the Denver community.”
As a result of LD’s lighting that particular fire, since graduating from LD in 2000, Clark has served on the DPS Commission for Secondary School Reform, Mayor Hickenlooper’s Leadership Team for Early Childhood Education, DPS’ “A+ Committee,” her own children’s school’s Collaborative School Committee, and as board chair for the Public Education and Business Coalition. “I owe my ability to make an impact in this important area to my experience in LD,” Clark said.
For 12 years, Clark was principal and co-owner of a leading Denver public relations firm, Schenkein. At the end of 2008, she sold her ownership in Schenkein to more actively pursue her involvement with Project C.U.R.E., an international nonprofit based in the Denver area that delivers medical supplies and equipment to more than 120 nations worldwide. Early in 2009, Clark joined IMA Financial — founded by CEO Rob Cohen, an LD alumnus — to oversee the risk-management company’s marketing operations as well as its philanthropic foundation.
Clark urged fellow and future LD graduates to turn their LD experience into a passion for lifelong learning. She has followed her own advice. “The connections I made through LD affect me each and every day. I formed lifelong friendships during my LD class and count my closest friends as fellow LD grads,” she said. “In addition, as a small business owner, LD provided me with a built-in network of contacts. There’s no better conversation starter than, ‘I’m an LD grad and know you are as well…’ to build bridges and open doors.”
Interviewer: Jessica Wisner, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Leadership Alliance Class of 2009
December 3rd, 2009 at 12:29 pm
A well researched site, I’ll link to it from my site thanks