Kevin Cottrell is executive director of the Southern California Leadership Network (SCLN) - a civic leadership organization that serves Los Angeles and Southern California. Since joining the effort in 2006, Cottrell has led the creation of a powerful strategic partnership between the Chamber and SCLN, resulting in a 40 percent growth in budget and programs for the benefit of SCLN's more than 1,300 leadership alumni and fellows. In addition to his title as executive director of SCLN, Cottrell is also the vice president of leadership programs for the L.A. Area Chamber. Under his leadership, SCLN now has long-term initiatives focused on Southern California's economy, natural resources and global connections, as well as a new state-wide, executive leadership program, California Connections that will identify and engage the future stewards of the State.

Over the past 20 years, Cottrell has held leadership positions in the nonprofit sector and academia including LEAD San Diego, University of California San Diego, and San Diego State University. He holds a B.B.A. from Northwood University and an M.A. in Political Science with a Latin American Studies specialization from San Diego State University. Cottrell is a past recipient of the Margaret Chase Smith Fellowship and a visiting scholar at Universidad de las Américas in Mexico City. Cottrell is a 2008 recipient of the American Marshall Memorial Fellowship on transatlantic affairs, which  included programs in Belgium, The Netherlands, Montenegro, Germany and Turkey. Cottrell currently coordinates the Southern California nominations and selection process for the Marshall Fellowship on behalf of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Cottrell is also a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy.

Taleen Ananian manages communication and social media for the Southern California Leadership Network. She is spearheading a new strategic communication initiative that will transform SCLN programs, curriculum, and civic engagement through social media--including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Flickr--for the nearly 1,400 SCLN alumni and other Southern Californians interested in leadership development. She is also responsible for leading the development of the SCLN website and other event communication. Beginning with SCLN in 2006, Ananian managed curriculum planning and implementation for the organization's Leadership L.A. and Leadership Southern California programs, while developing new grant-funded programs and leadership initiatives. Ananian is also currently a master's candidate in public diplomacy at USC's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. As part of her studies, in 2010 Ananian spent three months abroad in Paris, France, serving as a program and communication intern with the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). SCLN is the Southern California selection partner for GMF's prestigious American Marshall Memorial Fellowship.

Ananian graduated from the University of Southern California with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from the Annenberg School and a minor in Spanish. While at USC, she co-founded a live news radio program on student-run KSCR 1560 AM and contributed as a writer, camera operator and editor to Annenberg Television News. She was also production assistant to radio host Melinda Lee's weekly show on KNX 1070 Newsradio. Outside of work and school, Ananian is an active volunteer with the Museum Service Council at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as a member of the Young Professionals Advisory Board for Inner-City Arts in downtown Los Angeles.

April Tam manages client relations and event logistics for the Southern California Leadership Network. She is the primary liaison for the SCLN Board of Directors, SCLN alumni network of nearly 1,400 leaders, and the Fellows of SCLN’s core programs: Leadership L.A. and Leadership Southern California and California Connections. Tam oversees recruitment and selection for the more than 100 fellows who enroll in these programs each year. She also handles all event logistics for SCLN’s programs, including the annual  Southern California Visionaries Awards, the pinnacle leadership event in the region, and the primary fundraising event for SCLN. Through her work with leadership alumni and other top Southern California business, government and nonprofit leaders, Tam has played a critical role in increasing both the Network’s net revenue and engagement of a broader audience at Visionaries and other events and programs.

Previously, Tam worked in the events department for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. In that position she assisted in the production of all signature events for the Chamber. Before joining the Chamber in 2007, Tam interned with Warner Bros. in the premiere and special events department and for Special Occasions Inc., an event production company. She received her bachelor's of science degree in television/radio, and a double minor in journalism and speech communications at Ithaca College, in Ithaca, New York. She is fluent in Cantonese and conversational in Spanish. Outside of the office, she serves as a volunteer at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

Alexander Pampalone leads programs for the Southern California Leadership Network, organizing content and developing curriculum for core programs Leadership L.A. and Leadership Southern California, in addition to leadership initiatives including Global Connections and Conversations with Leaders. Pampalone led the launch of Global Connections and has continued to grow the program since August 2009. The program has brought together more than 150 leaders from the various immigrant communities that make up Southern California to discuss issues of social inclusion, diversity in leadership and international economic and political linkages. Program participants have included consuls general, corporate CEOs and civic leaders, including presidential appointees.

Prior to joining SCLN, Pampalone worked for Lehman Brothers in New York from 2006-2008, where he worked in the Investment Management Division, primarily with Latin American institutional clients. He is also civically engaged in the community. Pampalone is a member of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council and the National Italian American Foundation. He also serves as a Big Brother for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles and the Inland Empire. Pampalone holds a master’s of public diplomacy from the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California and a bachelor's degree in international relations from Boston University. He is fluent in Spanish and Italian, and speaks conversational French.    

Kamilah Martin is a 2011 National Urban Fellow and is pursuing a master’s in public administration from the City University of New York, Baruch College. Her primary role on the SCLN team is to develop the California Connections program initiative, which will facilitate statewide civic engagement and building of new relationships. The full statewide California Connections program in 2011 will include five two and a half day issue-intensive leadership seminars on greater Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Silicon Valley, the Central Valley, the San Diego cross-border region, and Sacramento.

Kamilah graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a degree in Business Management. Her background is in nonprofit/foundation program management and development, and youth leadership programming. Prior to her selection to the National Urban Fellows Program, Kamilah was project manager for the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, which offers a fellowship program to 40 college graduates of unusual promise for a year of independent, purposeful exploration and travel outside of the U.S. She has also recently founded Positive Prospects, Inc., a 501(c)(3)nonprofit organization designed to provide nontraditional young leaders with engaging educational and cultural enrichment experiences. In 2008 Kamilah was one of thirty-five New Yorkers awarded a New York University/Wagner Fellowship for Emerging Leaders in Public Service.

Walker's more than 20 years of successful business experience has been the foundation for her signature program Entrepreneurial Thinking®. Walker has given presentations on five continents to small businesses, Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and associations.

For the past three years, Walker has worked in collaboration with the Southern California Leadership Network in the area of curriculum development. This collaboration has led to the Civic Entrepreneurship framework that serves as the leadership development foundation for both Leadership Southern California and Leadership L.A. This unique framework blends the role of civic leadership with the vision and innovation of Entrepreneurial Thinking®. Participants learn new ways to collaborate among business, government, education and community to impact challenges and opportunities in Southern California.

Walker is a member of the National Speakers Association, recipient of the Gold Microphone Award, and a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP). Only 7 percent of the speakers from the National Speakers Association and the International Federation for Professional Speakers have attained this designation. Some of Walker's clients include Verizon, Atlas Van Lines, Blue Cross, Florida Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, VA Healthcare System, L.A. Bureau of Sanitation, Housing Authority of Los Angeles, L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce and many others.

She resides in Valencia with her husband and daughter.

Kevin S. Groves is an assistant professor of management at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management, and the founder and managing principal of Talent Management Solutions, a consultancy that helps organizations develop talent through leadership assessment, development, and succession planning systems.

Groves’s ongoing consulting work helps organizations design customized solutions for enhancing leadership bench strength, creating viable succession plans, reducing high potential turnover, and maximizing employee engagement. Prior clients include Kaiser Permanente, Frito-Lay, Inc., Mayo Clinic, PepsiCo, Midland College, and Witt/Kieffer, Inc, among others.

Groves teaches a range courses at the Graziadio School, including leadership competency development, organizational behavior, organization design, and organization development and change. His prior experiences in academia include a stint as Director of the PepsiCo Leadership Center at California State University, Los Angeles, where he managed a $1.45 million PepsiCo Foundation grant for the purposes of developing the leadership competencies of students, community members, and local business leaders.

An active leadership scholar, Groves currently holds the Julian Virtue Professorship at the Graziadio School, which supports his research on leader values and exemplary leadership practices. He is widely published in the business management journals, including Journal of Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Human Resource Development Quarterly, and Journal of Management Development. Groves is currently working on a book that summarizes his research on talent management best practices in the healthcare industry.

Groves received a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from Claremont Graduate University. He and his wife reside in Hermosa Beach.

Jeremy created The Practice of Self-Management, a series of challenging and transformative executive education practices and programs dedicated to managing oneself.  He teaches in the Executive Management and MBA programs at the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, where he has been affiliated since 1999.

Hunter's courses are among the first to introduce mindfulness practice, a rigorous form of mental discipline, attention training and emotional management, in a management context.  They incorporate state-of-the art findings in neuroscience, psychology, medicine and the arts.  Hunter's work is informed by his life experience of living with a supposedly terminal illness for 17 years. When told he needed life-saving surgery,  more than a dozen of his former students came forward as organ donors. He received a new kidney from one of them in December of 2008.

He is also a founding partner of CoreWorks Consulting, with Drucker alumnus Scott Scherer.  Coreworks coaches and consults with professionals and organizations to develop their managerial capacities.  They help their clients perform more effectively, have greater clarity and resolve in decision-making, as well as manage reactive emotions and improve the quality of their professional relationships.

His clients have included Toyota Motor Sales, Northrup-Grumman, the Los Angeles Police Department, John Laing Homes, Starbucks, The Museum of Contemporary Art, First AME Church of South Central Los Angeles, Red Mountain Retail Group, Kaiser Permanente, Southern California Housing Development Corporation, The University of Southern California and the California WellBeing Institute.  He has lectured at Brown University, the University of North Texas, the University of California at San Francisco, University of Southern California, and Wittenberg University.  He is also an Executive Coach with Corporate Coaching International.

Hunter received his Ph.D. from University of Chicago, an M.P.P. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Wittenberg University. He consults internationally, speaks Japanese, and loves to eat.  He lives in Los Angeles.