Leadership Kentucky Class of 2018 in Louisville

By: Liz Snodgrass, Class of 2018 member, CEO - Livingston Hospital & Healthcare Services

The LKY 2018 Class were re-united in Louisville July 18-20.  What an honor to be in this program and amongst this class! 

Day 1 - Our Louisville class started by meeting Mayor Greg Fisher who discussed his core values of lifelong learning, health – physical and spiritual, and compassion.  Additionally, Mayor Fisher discussed Louisville’s challenges and goals surrounding respect, the opioid crisis and education.  The class was then introduced to Mary Ellen Wiederwohl, Chief, Louisville Forward (Louisville Economic Development) who shared details about the Greater Louisville Project and “opportunity zones”.  The class then toured River Ridge Development Authority in Jeffersonville, Indiana.  Finally, the day ended with hors-d'oeuvres and bourbon at Bill and Nancy Samuels home.  Bill was in his element telling stories in his study that included many artifacts passed down from several generations of the Samuels family.  As a gift from the Samuels, each class member received a bottle of the infamous wax dipped bottle of bourbon.

Day 2 – On day 2, we met and were fascinated with the accomplishments and demeanor of Dr. Tori Murden-McClure, President of Spalding University.  She intrigued the class with her drive and commitment to overcome the challenges experienced rowing solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Dr. McClure authored “A Pearl in the Storm”.  We learned that she loves “firsts”.  Dr. McClure was the first woman to row solo across the Atlantic; the first woman to reach the summit of a mountain in the Antarctic; the first woman to ski the South Pole.  Dr. McClure ended her story with the “Top 10 things I think I know”.  We then learned about Louisville’s commitment to the Arts – The Kentucky Center, Brown Theater Tour, Imagine 2020, and Kentucky Shakespeare.  In the afternoon, we attended the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Business Summit and Annual Meeting.  The Summit included current federal and state issues including how Kentucky’s statistics stack up with the rest of the country; trade, tariffs and Kentucky’s economy; Matt Jones & Scott Jennings discussing Kentucky politics.  The program ended with a wonderful dinner and keynote speaker Arthur Brooks who discussed Bringing America Together.  Finally, several class members attended the bourbon tasting hosted by Brown Furman and made possible by Les Thomas, LKY 2018 classmate.  Les provided each of his classmates with a bottle of Woodford Reserve bourbon etched with the Leadership Kentucky logo and personalized with each classmate’s name.  Thank you Les!  Several class members also received a tour of the UPS Worldport facility.  The UPS distribution facility includes over 150 miles of conveyor belts, handles approximately 2,000 packages every 17 seconds and an airplane arrives/departs every 90 seconds.

Day 3 – On day 3 we continued the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Business Summit and Annual Meeting with several presentations on Kentucky’s key issues including the opioid crisis, with speaker and author of Dreamland, Sam Quinones; Panel discussion on Kentucky’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) and selling Kentucky for economic development.  We also had a keynote luncheon with Joe Craft, President Alliance Coal.  The class ended the day with the Leadership Kentucky team, Janice, Helen and Madeline who grouped the class according to our predictive index scores.  The class was tasked with the future reading of Thomas Friedman’s book “Thank You For Being Late”.

I will remember two quotes from Louisville’s session.  The first was from Arthur Brooks, keynote speaker at Thursday’s dinner – “You are entering the mission field”.  I will try to think of this quote every time I leave my house.  The second was from Ted Abernathy, BSAM opening session speaker who quoted Theodore Roosevelt “comparison is the thief of joy”.

The class will reunite again in Paducah August 15-17.