The following remarks were written and delivered by Isaac Kos-Read, Port of Los Angeles and Graduate, Leadership Southern California 2010 on July 27, 2010 at the LSC Graduation & Class Report. He was selected by his peers to summarize the LSC experience over the past year.

Good evening.

What an honor, a humbling honor,  that my fellow classmates have selected me to speak on our behalf.

Before I begin, I would like to express our collective appreciation, first to Kevin and his phenomenal Southern California Leadership Network team. Second, to Kimberly, Gary, and all of the Board Members of the Leadership Network, especially the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

LA. needs more organizations like the Chamber that encourage us to think about this vast region as a whole, and what we can do as leaders to make it better. This region, with its nearly 18 million people, nearly half the population of the state of California, would be the fifth most populous state behind only Texas, New York, the other 53 California counties, and Florida. If it were its own nation, it would be the 16th largest economy in the world. We need more organizations like the LA Chamber that help us remember this significance.

But Gary, Kimberly, Kevin … unfortunately, I have some bad news. In preparing these remarks, I talked to my fellow classmates, read their testimonials, asked around and well … they’re not happy.

And no, it’s not because of the economy…though that has many people down.

It’s not because of some of our friends in government who left Sacramento without a budget and who pulled a water bond we desperately need from the November ballot after finally negotiating key compromises to get it on the ballot in the first place.

It’s not because of egregious actions of those in the private sector -- like BP and others -- that have led to a disaster for which we all will be paying a price for years to come.

And no, it’s not because the Lakers finally beat the Celtics this year.

It’s none of that! No, the reason my classmates and I are all bummed is because this program is over. What the heck are we going to do with our extra Friday each month!?!

No more Kevin to implore us to think about leadership. No more inspirational leaders to give us real world examples of how we can delve into solving this region’s problems, and no more fascinating discoveries about our region on topics some of us thought we thought we already knew.

Now we have to actually be leaders! Wasn’t it so much easier when we were just listening and learning?

But the good news is this … while one thing ends, another begins and that’s why they call graduation speeches, “commencement addresses.” The Leadership staff were kept calling this a report and I was thinking, “Oh no, that sounds like a book report,” and I hated those!

Even worse, my parents kept telling everyone that I was going to give a lecture!

So, sorry Kevin, not a report. Sorry mom and dad, not a lecture. Instead, I’m calling this a “commencement call to action.” And if we take a moment to reflect on all that we learned over this last 10 months, in this “crash course” in Southern California, it will be easy to understand why I think of this as a call to action.

We learned the language of leadership. What is a civic entrepreneur? How do you hone your leadership skills and apply them to the intractable problems society faces, in ways that are collaborative, inspirational, and, ultimately, effective.

We learned about how inter-connected the problems are that challenge our region. This was really a powerful and recurring theme throughout the program and the source of so many “aha” moments.

Who knew that the number one liability of the Metropolitan Water District isn’t drought and it isn’t earthquakes … but energy? Met spends over $200 million every year, about a tenth of its budget, on energy costs related to importing water into our region. Think about that the next time you turn on your faucet!

And we learned that Met’s second biggest liability -- again to our surprise – is workforce development. As of right now, and projecting forward for the next five years, fully fifty to seventy percent of Met’s workforce is eligible for retirement…with benefits. Our colleagues at Metro echoed this same challenge.

Who among us is going to step up and tackle the immense challenges of energy and workforce development?

We learned about LA’s fashion industry – which I have to admit was a lot of fun – and came to understand that energy, environmental and workforce policies also have a tremendous impact on this industry, which employs thousands in the region. Who among us is going to help the fashion industry and others like it continue to thrive and create jobs?

We certainly did not just learn about the challenges of the fabulous fashion industry. We also learned about the daunting challenges faced by those who live just steps away from that industry, on the street, in some of the largest homeless populations in our country. And I have to say that it was really amazing to learn that one of our classmates, because of this program, has already been inspired to reach out and begin helping the homeless.

Looking out beyond LA, we learned how a former military base went from being a potential solution to our air traffic challenges to a great park – or at least a “great turnabout” – which took several elections to settle. But as they say, all politics are local and the folks in Orange Cunty now have the opportunity to create a major new civic asset for the entire region. I believe they can do it, and that some of us in this room will help make it happen.

We learned that thousands of people transit back and forth across our border with Mexico every day, that the border region is humming with business and cultural activity, and that our future is inextricably tied to our neighbor to the south. There are certainly lots of challenges ahead in this multicultural relationship, and we will all need to work together to get past those challenges and enjoy fully the fruits of our diversity.

Through our trip to the State Capitol with Acess Sacramento, we learned that our problems can’t all be solved by toiling in our own backyard…that we have to reach out to Sacramento and DC to help them help us.

I know that there is at least one you among us here that will someday serve in the state legislature or Congress, or in statewide office – or even the Oval Office! – and in that service will remember the needs of Southern California.

As much as we like to think of L.A. as the source of all good ideas – a couple of us were able to participate in the first California connections program, traveling to the San Francisco Bay Area to learn that there are some great ideas being put into practice in other parts of the state. Ideas that shape policies in both Sacramento and Washington that ultimately affect us.

I am excited to commit to you all today that this leadership program has inspired me to be part of the team that is going to expand and enhance the California connections program, and I hope that you will all take advantage of it in the future.

We had the privilege to meet and learn from visionaries like Maria Contreras-Sweet, a pioneer in the banking industry, and Steve Soboroff, a successful developer. Steve clearly inspired his group to think big and deliver on their visions. And Maria had some compelling advice for us: “master the language of your field.” She told us that when she brings her Anglo-American husband to banking events, people always assume that he’s the banker – not her.

But it doesn’t faze her. Why? Because she’s mastered the language of her field and charges right into the issues she knows -- and she’s shaking up the stodgy world of banking in the process.

Who among us, five, ten, or twenty years in the future, are going to be invited to sit down with the next generation of aspiring leaders and give them the advice they need to shake up their industries?

We learned how Mayor Villaraigosa and the folks at Metro are working on what is obviously one of the biggest challenges this region has to tackle: traffic. But with Measure R and visionary implementation plans like 30/10, there’s hope that we can make Los Angeles a cleaner, more efficient and healthier community by the sea.

Ahhh, the sea…

That leads me to a subject that is near and dear to my heart these days… the Port of Los Angeles. Yes, I couldn’t help but save the best for last.

We learned about the Port of Los Angeles -- America’s Port. Together with our Long Beach neighbor, the number one container port complex in the Western Hemisphere, right in our own backyard and, to my continued amazement, most people don’t even know it!

They aren’t aware of the vital role we play in the regional and national economy and they aren’t aware of the pioneering environmental work taking place here that is leading to improvements throughout the transportation industry, and making kids healthier and breathe easier right here in our neighborhoods.

I assure you that the leadership of the Port of LA is continuing in this positive direction. For example, I have the honor to be part of an amazing project: a plan to develop a world class marine research center at the Port. This center, at the Port’s historic “City Dock One”, will not only research the human-marine interface, but develop and help commercialize practical, job-generating technologies to address problems like sea level rise, declining aquaculture, and pollution from our intensive use of the sea. If you have not visited already, I invite you all to come down and get to know your port and this exciting project we’re working on!

But, I digress…

Ultimately, we learned about and analyzed the qualities of leaders. We met some from our state and our region and critiqued what they’re doing well, what they’re doing wrong and what else needs to be done.

And all of it was valuable. All of it provided a “perspective shift”, as one of you recently described it to me.

But now it is our turn to take the knowledge and perspective, and see how we can contribute, and perhaps how we can do better.

After all, we didn’t take this “crash course” just for fun. Our respective organizations didn’t pay the fee -- nor give us the time off – without expecting to see some return on their investment.

We invested our time and our employers’ money in an effort to make things better for Southern California. So it’s time to take the knowledge we gained here and put it into action.

We’re certainly not going to change this region on our own. Nor should we. Of the many valuable things we learned during this program, we learned we have each other. We have this amazing leadership network and many other networks that we are all part of. Now we have to put those “networks of networks” to use.

This was such a rich experience and I think you will all agree with me when I say that the “crash course” worked. To paraphrase a great observation from one of your testimonials, “we gained in ten months what would have otherwise taken ten years!”

So my “commencement call to action” is simply this: we are the leaders we’ve been waiting for.

Let’s take this knowledge we were all fortunate enough to gain and put it into practice right away. We are the ones in position to ask tough questions, be contrarians and bring fresh ideas to the table. With knowledge comes responsibility and thanks to this program, we’ve gained knowledge that we didn’t have before. Now it’s our responsibility to put it to work!

Again, it has been an honor to speak on behalf of the Leadership Southern California Class of 2010. Now let’s get out there and lead this region to a better future!

Thank you.

I recently returned from five very different countries in 25 days, with the honor of representing California as an American Marshall Memorial Fellow. 

My passport now has new stamps from Belgium (pictured below at the EU in Brussels), Denmark, Greece, Croatia, and Romania - a mix of the European Union capitol; Nordic country; the Mediterranean; former Yugoslavia; and a true eastern bloc country having been ruled by Nazis, Soviets, and one of the most insane dictators of the 20^th century.

This program, through the Washington D.C.-based German Marshall Fund of the United States, selects about 50 leaders under 40 years of age annually from all walks of life to learn firsthand the importance of the transatlantic relationship.  At the same time, about 50 European counterparts are selected and sent to various cities across the United States, including Los Angeles.  Fifteen of us were part of the spring trip - the rest of the American fellows go in the summer or fall - meeting with Members of Parliament, journalists, businesses, cultural leaders, NGOs, and even military commanders. 

So, why all this effort for something called the transatlantic relationship?  Because, especially for us Californians, with our eyes trained to the west along the Pacific Rim and Latin America, it is sometimes easy to forget the incredible influence and importance of Europe to our daily lives. 

The clearest reminder as to why Europe matters is today's global economy - with the focus on German stimulus exit strategies and Greece's austerity measures.

Visiting these nations, and talking with everyone from think tank experts to bartenders, provided a dizzying array of examples of just how intertwined are Europe and America... and California for that matter.  The list of 'Did You Knows' can take up an entire page, so here are just a few:

• The European Union (E.U.) is the world largest single common market.

• The E.U. and the U.S. are each other's main trading partners, with over $2 billion flowing across the Atlantic daily, more than $700 billion annually. Together, the E.U. and U.S. make up more than half of the global GDP, each being the largest trade and investment partner for nearly all other countries.

• The environment and green economy are top of mind throughout the E.U., and Copenhagen is the center of the carbon reduction debate, just as California is for the U.S. The failures at the Copenhagen climate conference to achieve consensus revealed much work continues for any true agreement on environmental issues. The struggle for China, India and Brazil to be part of the carbon emissions solution sounds a lot like California's gubernatorial candidates arguing the merits of AB 32 if neighboring states do not have to comply.  The green economy has, however, proved to be very lucrative as alternative energy manufacturing is a major economic driver for many E.U. countries.

• China matters over there, too.  Just like California, the E.U. looks to the Pacific Rim for economic and trade opportunities, with the he E.U. being China's biggest trading partner.

• The economic crisis has jolted E.U. countries to realize that past economic and social entitlement models may no longer be sustainable. There is new and intense scrutiny on runaway pension commitments and spending, problems California continues to struggles with.  While there is much criticism of Greece, there is consensus and dedication in Athens to use its crisis as an opportunity to correct past mistakes and adjust its economy to a sustainable growth path, with very clear budget reduction goals, and aggressive policies to break open its markets that were historically closed and abused for parochial gain. This drive for real improvement through tough decision making is an example for Sacramento and Los Angeles leaders. Pictured above, Fellows meet with Greek Members of Parliament Aggelos Tolkas (far left) and Evripidis Stylianidis (far right), a past GMF Fellow.

• Volunteerism and charity do not exist in Europe as it does here.  Because E.U. countries provide basic support for hunger, health, and grants for R&D, the operating mentality is 'why give what little money or time I have to help something that the state is supposed to be providing for already?'   NGOs exist, but felt limited in scope and impact, with most NGOs relying entirely on the state or the E.U. for its funding (no private donors).

I frankly can go on and on about all the best practices and cautionary tales learned from this experience, along with some truly indelible impressions made on me, such as:  witnessing the Nordic Paradox of capitalism and socialism really working together; the consensus and focus of the majority of Greece to improve; the contagious optimism of Croatia as it strives for acceptance as members of the E.U.; the impressive societal, political and economic progress made by Romania in its 20 years of freedom from dictators, Soviets and Nazis - and the sad feeling that these systems are now stalled by a crippling economy and pervasive corruption.

Finally, seeing the mistreatment and systemic neglect of the Roma people not only in Romania but across Europe is haunting.  For more than one thousand years, the Roma have been an integral part of European civilization. Today, as many as 12 million Roma now make up the biggest ethnic minority in Europe, present in all 27 E.U. Member States and most are E.U. citizens.  However, many Roma are prohibited from accessing basic hospital care and education, and the target of excessive and repressive measures such as forced evictions from informal settlements. These human rights issues were very apparent and a reminder of the progress America has made in its treatment of citizens and immigrants alike. Above, Valeriu Turcan, press secretary to the Romanian President and former GMF fellow, briefs the group.

The importance of the American Marshall Memorial Fellowship (AMMF) is not only what we learn abroad, but what we do with those experiences upon return home - learning from and using those best practices to address issues facing us as citizens, taxpayers, consumers, environmental stewards, Americans. The transatlantic relationship has served our nation well, and will be as important as ever for California as the country's global powerhouse. 

For more information on the AMMF program, visit http://gmfus.org/fellowships/mmf.cfm.

View all of Colleen's photos on our Flickr gallery.

Colleen Haggerty is Senior Vice President, Media Relations, for Bank of America and a graduate of Leadership Southern California Class of 2009. 

The following remarks were written and delivered by Brenda Sutton-Wills, California Teachers Association and Graduate, Leadership L.A. (LLA) 2009. She was selected by her peers to summarize the LLA experience over the past year.

Good evening, Mr. Buzzelli, family and friends, and my fellow graduates.  I am very pleased to present the Leadership L.A. 2009 Class Report and Remarks.   In many ways, this Leadership L.A. experience has been a meditation on engagement, commitment and authenticity.

This has been a meditation on engagement in its many necessary facets.  Many of you here are employers and members of the Chamber.  Thank you for the foundation of engagement necessary to make Leadership L.A. a success.  The first act of civic engagement was your investment in this program.  It occurred when you committed your resources-whether it was our time away from work, the tuition, or a grant that made the fellowship possible.   My employer, the California Teachers Association, has been flexible and supportive of my civic engagement during my entire career, thank you CTA.

There has also been the critical and personal investment of family good will into this program, as our involvement over the months has deflected energy from home to invest in the promise of even further outward involvement.  To our supportive spouses, families and friends: we thank you. 

Taleen, Alex, April, your professionalism is impressive.  You have demonstrated an unflappable sense of humor, skill, poise and knowledge of Los Angeles in implementing this program.  The Leadership L.A. Class of 2009 appreciates you, more than you could know.  Thank you.

In Leadership L.A., the bus ride is as much of the experience as is the destination.

Do you ever have those conversations where you are greedy for more information, where you are meeting someone who is staggeringly fresh, honest and committed?   I recently had one of those conversations.

I rode with Helen Kwon, who is the president of an executive search and placement agency.  She told me about the challenges her business faces in this economy, the challenges she faces in Los Angeles as a person who is more comfortable in New York, San Francisco and in Korea.  She is new to Los Angeles, and her 9^th grade daughter is having a hard time with new friends and a new language in Los Angeles.  She told me that she and her teenager were having challenges relating to one another.  What she said next blew me away.

"My daughter says I don't understand her.  When I saw the young men at the Central jail and their lack of opportunity, I decided that if I could reach disadvantaged young men in school, and help them find opportunity-many of them are Black and Latino, I don't know how to talk to them either-I could also reach my daughter."

New to Los Angeles, struggling to navigate dicey economic times and a teenager, and following her visit to Los Angeles Men's Central Jail, Helen established a job-shadowing program for disadvantaged youth.

It is in the brief telling of Helen's story of personal engagement that I introduce you to the Leadership L.A. Class of 2009.  We are engaged, hopeful, and committed on a very personal level.  I am thankful and honored to be a part of this cadre.  Thank you so much for the opportunity to deliver this report.

We all agree that we studied more systems and met more experts than our careers or current level of civil engagement would have exposed us to.

We saw the beautiful new schools, bursting at the seams with young people eager to learn and trusting LAUSD and the larger community of stakeholders not to let them down.  We heard from teachers and administration that are committed and engaged at a very personal level, even as they worried about potential job losses due to a lack of funding for public schools.

In sharp and meaningful juxtaposition, many of us were moved by the visit to the Men's Central Jail.    Looking into the faces of the predominately Black and Brown men left us in pain, and it reminded us of the urgency of civic engagement and quality education.

Many fellows acted immediately and formed a group to financially support Homeboy Industries.  Heeding a call for assistance from a group whose motto is "Jobs not Jail" is indeed a worthy and well-timed act of civic engagement.

The session on arts, culture and creative economy also offered a counter point to the jail experience.  Inner-city Arts truly is an oasis of learning and creativity in the heart of skid row.  Leadership L.A. fellows formed a board of directors to serve their needs.

Pamela Parker is a resident of the Abbey Apartments.  Ms. Parker had been at the top of the entertainment industry earning substantial money.  She found herself homeless in skid row.   She captivated us as she spoke with pride about her modest and beautiful new home at the Abbey, and she served us home-baked cookies.  We left that session in the heart of skid row with an impression of hope for the chronically homeless in Los Angeles.  Well strategized interventions do work even when facing very daunting and dark problems.  Many fellows engaged in a letter writing campaign meant to convince the board of supervisors to adopt further funding of the multi-disciplinary service model of homeless intervention.

We heard from community leaders in Korea town.  They asked to be understood.  The sense of urgency expressed by Hyepin Im, Chang Lee, Brad Lee, and Christopher Pak reminded us that civic engagement also means extending ourselves beyond our comfort zone to form community across cultural barriers.  The Koreatown community continues to reach out to reinforce our cross-cultural continuity of interests following the April 29, 1992 realization that they were considered "other" by many in the communities surrounding their businesses.

These few examples of our experiences provide a call and response between engagement and commitment.  The trust, engagement, and honesty of our neediest community partners presenting themselves and asking us to take them as we find them is the call. You, the class of 2009 responded, intelligently and urgently, with commitment and community.

We are plotting our next moves.  We were exposed to health care access, education and workforce development,media and entertainment, public safety, the Port of Los Angeles and airports; a deep dive into Koreatown, water and the environment. There is more to say than my time will allow. What I can say, is that we have made a commitment to be accountable to one another and to engage and invest deeply.

Finally, this has been a meditation on authenticity.  At the first session, we talked about how holding one's self out as a "leader" is a tricky notion.  I have had conversations with many of my colleagues and have confirmed that our quest for improved civic engagement is selfless and authentic and without pretense.  We as a class struggle with time, as we maintain our careers and families. It is the exposure and investment of the larger community that calls to us, to answer and engage with the vulnerability that comes with a personal investment in Los Angeles.

In closing, the Leadership L.A. Class of 2009 thanks Kevin Cottrell.  The obvious joy and personal investment he demonstrates is at the core of the success of Leadership L.A.  We appreciate you, Kevin, and we look forward to being in touch with you as we continue this journey.

Lately I have been giving a lot of thought about connections. It seems that in this economic downturn, there is a genuine up turn for opportunities for people to connect and share information. At SCLN, the downturn has certainly been playing out this way and it has given our team a renewed sense of purpose.

To help accelerate deeper connections among our alumni and the region, SCLN has embarked on a number of new programs to keep our current and past fellow connected to longer-term leadership initiatives on the economy and innovation, natural resource sustainability and globalization trends. We see these as critical trends that leaders must consider for the future of our region and beyond.

Of note, SCLN is working on two types of programming that will help connect our alumni network in new and innovative ways:

Global Connections. SCLN is committed to more deeply engaging Southern California's many ethnic immigrant communities and enhancing our global-local leadership capacity. Los Angeles alone is home to an estimated 30 ethnic enclaves, including settlements that are internationally recognized as the largest populations outside their respective countries of origin. Examples of ethnic enclaves in terms of size and economic impact include Vietnamese in Orange County (Little Saigon); Koreans in Los Angeles (Koreatown); Chinese in Los Angeles; and Latinos throughout Southern California. Through a grant from the James Irvine Foundation, the Southern California Leadership Network will begin exploring local perspectives, economic connections, and global policy linkages of Southern California's ethnic communities.The first in this series, Global Connections: Korean-Americans & Southern California, will bring together SCLN with prominent leaders in the region's Korean-American community. This dinner program will begin a fresh dialogue between local Korean-Americans from the private, government, and nonprofit sectors with greater Southern California on Wednesday, Aug. 12. View more information about this program. Future dinners will focus on the Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Russian, and Thai communities among others. Please save the date of Tuesday, Oct. 13 for our program on Iranian-Americans & Southern California.

Through this series, SCLN is giving background information on the communities and their ethnic country of origin; providing guidance on developing cross-cultural relationships; and demonstrating how these communities lend cultural and linguistic advantages that can be leveraged more effectively for the region as a whole.

California Connections. With deep budget cuts to our state budget, and more than 2 million Californians unemployed-- 843,000 more than one year ago-- Southern California leaders need to understand the governance and fiscal issues that connect all Californians. A new effort is now underway with SCLN alumni to embark on a study trip to the San Francisco Bay area in early 2010 to give alumni an opportunity to connect with Bay Area leaders about their region and the future direction of governance, fiscal and natural resource issues. Early planning conversations for the study trip have touched on themes on the tech industry, Bay-Delta issues, and regional governance. As California seeks innovative remedies to its most pressing problems, we are committed to connecting SCLN alumni to state-wide leadership networks and opportunities. Look for more information in the coming months.

For more information on California reform efforts, visit the Public Policy Institute of California and California Forward, or read more from L.A. Area Chamber President & CEO Gary Toebben's Business Perspective blog.

Our hope in these more challenging times is to help our alumni connect to critical leadership issues that will determine the future of our region and state. In the process, participants will gain new knowledge, relationships and most importantly skills to lead effectively in a new and dynamic era.

-Kevin Cottrell
Executive Director, Southern California Leadership Network
and Vice President of Leadership Programs, L.A. Area Chamber

by Kevin Cottrell

Everything seems to be dropping. Home values, stock prices, and employment. It's a hard time for everyone, everywhere. This economic environment can also drag down our ability to be creative and optimistic about the future. Perhaps most challenging for leaders is the intensity of dealing with immediate and tactically important issues at the expense of taking the long view in order to be strategic and thoughtful. And yet a leader's long view vision for the future is absolutely vital to moving our communities and organizations forward to both recovery and prosperity.

I certainly have found myself struggling with these very challenges in the past few weeks and months, but was pleased when I ran across a recent article in The Atlantic this month. New York Times best selling author Richard Florida has penned an article called "How the Crash Will Reshape America." I had an email exchange with Leadership Southern California (LSC) 2009 Fellow Colleen Haggerty who shared that she "found [the article] a fascinating exercise in urban analysis" and thought her LSC colleagues would find it valuable.

Florida's work focuses on the creative economy, workforce, patterns of urban development and the emergence of mega-regions. This particular article touches upon how the future of mega regions, including Southern California, are best positioned for the future as a result of their ability to incubate innovative technology and creative sectors and attract and cluster the "big talent" that will both fuel recovery and sustain future economic growth. Sadly, Florida points out that that some regions may succeed and others may simply not recover.

I was glad to exchange emails with Colleen, because it reminded me of some of our recent Leadership Southern California sessions and how Southern California might accelerate its recovery and propel future growth. In our session in Los Angeles, we saw that we have the world's leading cluster of creative talent in music, film, arts, and design. In our session in Orange County we experienced the importance of technology clusters and the transfer of knowledge from our universities to economic and social development. And in our session in Riverside County we saw the push for downtown redevelopment and the arts, as well started to rethink the housing crisis aftermath. Even this daunting issue made us think of innovative regional solutions. For example, does the drop in housing prices and the new supply offer us new options for affordable and work force housing for first-time buyers? Obviously the opportunity rests with a creative coordination of efforts and a return of the credit markets.

Reflecting on previous LSC sessions reminded me about the importance of taking long view our region's opportunities. Today's tactical decisions should be connected to the vision for tomorrow.

-Kevin Cottrell
Executive Director, Southern California Leadership Network
and Vice President of Leadership Programs, L.A. Area Chamber

Image credit: Sean McCabe for The Atlantic