The NLTA is our annual flagship training program for network leaders, funders and evaluators. In 2021 we are exploring our options for in-person, hybrid and virtual options. Meet some of the world’s leading experts and practitioners, explore network science and leadership and walk away with practical skills an knowledge to hep you build, manage and evaluate cross-sector community networks.


NLTA Alumni Testimonials
“I found the Network Leadership Training Academy to be a more valuable experience than I ever anticipated… I left with a completely different perspective on how our program could be operating and how our organizational structure could improve to better support our “network” design. “
Kendra Bigsby
Assistant Director, CO School of Public Health at CSU“The NLTA was a worthwhile experience that broadened my horizons, created access to experts in the field, and gave me a platform to share my experiences with participants. I think the NLTA is a valuable community of practice about network leadership.”
Dustin Stiver
Program Officer, The Sprout FundThe Network Leadership Training Academy was my greatest experience for professional growth and new learning this year. It was exhilarating to discover other network leaders who were dealing with the same issues we wrestle with. We found many resources and sessions highly applicable to our work
Dave Hackett
Region Director, visionSynergy
Meet our 2020 NLTA Speakers!

Dr. Jennifer Husbands
Senior Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Jennifer L. Husbands, Ph.D. is a Senior Program Officer on the K-12 Education team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation who leads the Community of Practice for the Networks for School Improvement. Prior to joining the Foundation, Jennifer was the founding Executive Director of Schools That Can Chicago, where she convened a cross-sector network of schools to share promising practices in real-world learning to catalyze school improvement. Over her career she has held a variety of roles leading adult learning in school districts, CMOs, and non-profit organizations.

Dr. Darrin Hicks
Professor of Communications
University of Denver

Abby R. Charles, MPH
Program Officer,
Institute for
Public Health
Innovation
Ms. Charles is a Program Director at the Institute for Public Health Innovation, having joined the organization after serving for five years at the Women’s Collective, a nationally recognized organization providing care, prevention, and advocacy services for women, girls and their families living with and at risk for HIV in the Metropolitan DC area.

Curtis
Ogden
Senior Associate,
Interaction Inst.
for
Social Change
Much of Curtis’ work with IISC entails consulting with multi-stakeholder networks to strengthen and transform food public health, education, and economic development systems at local, state, regional, and national levels. He has worked with networks to launch and evolve through various stages of development. Curtis writes regularly about networks and social change on IISC’s blog. In addition to his work at IISC, Curtis is on the advisory board of EmbraceRace, a member of the Research Alliance for Regenerative Economics (RARE) and the Emerging Networks Governance Initiative (ENGI) and shares the Thomas W. Haas Professorship in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of New Hampshire where he is engaged in scholarship on the intersection of networks and racial equity.

Kap Wilkes
Director of Program Development,
National Rural Health Resource Center
Kap, Director of Program Development, joined The Center in 2012. Kap focuses on developing rural health consulting services for the organization; products and services that increase the capacity of health organizations and networks, in alignment with The Center’s vision to sustain and improve health care in rural communities. She is responsible for management of the Network Technical Assistance program and the rural health care recruitment and retention focus area. The Network TA team supports over 100 rural health networks across the nation, providing support, expertise, and training for network development and leadership development in areas such as, collaboration between diverse partners, communication and marketing, managing change and improving performance, strategic planning and program evaluation, value proposition and business planning, health information technology, and rural health network care coordination models.

Lisa VanRaemdonck
Executive Director,
CU Denver School of Public Affairs Institute

Blythe
Butler
Developmental Evaluator,
First 2000 Days Network
Blythe is the founder of Atticus Insights. She is currently supporting the development of multiple networks and collaboratives using network analysis, developmental evaluation and capacity building to improve both process (systems) outcomes as well as program and client-level outcomes. Blythe’s practice focuses on change management, evaluation, and capacity building to support the development of adaptive learning cultures within organizations. She is an accomplished facilitator and stakeholder engagement practitioner with over 15 years’ experience in the public, private and non-profit sectors. Blythe holds a BComm in Finance and International Development from University of Alberta, studied Journalism at Carleton University, and Design Marketing at Parsons in New York City.

Lauren
Hebert
Associate Director of External Innovation Programs, Inworks CU Denver // Anschutz
After working across many different domains—from biopsychology to healthcare to learning science—Lauren has become an expert at thinking in systems, collaborating across disciplines, and communicating hard-to-grasp concepts. Now, she channels these skills to guide creative teams through a novel innovation process that synthesizes systems thinking and human-centered design.
- Veeo (veeo.io), Co-Founder
- Make4Covid (make4covid.co), Lead Organizer
- Shop Sidewalk (shopsidewalk.com), Founding Team Member
- Inworks CU Denver | Anschutz (Inworks.org), Associate Director of External Innovation Programs
- Team Earth (teamearth.io), Systems Strategy Consultant

Bruce Goldstein
Associate Professor, University of
Colorado at
Boulder
Dr. Goldstein is an Associate Professor in the Program in Environmental Design and the Program in Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, faculty in the Masters of Environment Program, core faculty in the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, and a faculty research associate in the Institute for Behavioral Science. He work with skilled network facilitators, or “netweavers,” who balance network-wide coherence with community autonomy, encouraging communities to experiment with new approaches that suit their circumstances. To support their amazing work, I manage a learning community, the Netweaver’s Network.

Peter Eckart
Director of Health and Information Technology,
Illinois Public Health Institue
Peter Eckart’s career spans over twenty-five years in which he has successfully spearheaded operations and project management in not-for-profit organizations. In addition to his role as Director of Health and Information Technology at the Illinois Public Health Institute (IPHI), he is currently leading the National Program Office at IPHI for a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative, Data Across Sectors for Health (DASH). DASH identifies barriers, opportunities, promising practices and indicators of progress for multi-sector collaborations to connect information systems and share data for community health improvement. The group co-founded the learning network All In: Data for Community Health with AcademyHealth’s Community Health Peer Learning Program.

Santiago Bunce
VP of Evaluation & Learning,
Catalyst
Miami
Santiago joined Catalyst Miami in January 2015. His role includes connecting and forming collaborative networks that are committed to achieving tangible results within their communities. Santiago’s professional commitment is to improve quality of life for the marginalized. He has a Masters in International Development, Nonprofit Management, and International Economics as well as training in Financial Management. Santiago serves on the board of the Awesome Foundation.

Sami
Berger
Developmental Evaluator,
Curious Compass
For the past six years, I have been supporting not-for-profit, public, and government organizations with their evaluation and research needs. I have had the privilege of working as the developmental evaluator for the First 2000 Days Network and EmcArts and have supported research and evaluation projects for organizations such as Calgary Reads, the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Government of Alberta, and the City University of New York. I hold a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics.

Dylan McDonald
Management & Policy Analyst, National Park Service
Having spent the past ten years as a ranger in our national parks, I currently develop diverse, multi-stakeholder teams in support of the organizational mission of the National Park Service. In this work, I seek creative and collaborative solutions to adaptive challenges, continually working to foster equity and inclusion within the workplace. Insatiably curious, I am committed to lifelong learning and professional excellence, contributing to organizational effectiveness through personal and professional development, employee engagement, peer coaching, and leadership development. My driving passion is to leverage Responsive organizational design to catalyze purpose-driven, inspiring careers, and intrinsically empowering, sustainable workplaces for all.

Jonathan Mischke
VP of Communications and Marketing,
Visible Network Labs
Jonathan has spent the last 20 years helping companies find innovative ways to connect with their customers and communicate about what they do. With a background in design and marketing, he’s developed campaigns for brands including Nike, Apple, Google, Facebook and Kelloggs. Jonathan brings VNL’s brand to life through heart-centered messaging and design that champion authenticity and human connection as driving forces in our business culture. Based in Boulder, CO, he is a passionate cyclist, husband and father.

Bilal
Taylor
Senior Program & Policy Analyst,
National Office of Policy & Prevention
Nemours Children’s Health System
Bilal Taylor, MPA, has spent 20 years developing, implementing and evaluating the efficacy of programmatic and systems-level interventions that enhance the quality of life of underserved youth & families. His interest in how multi-sector partnerships can help address structural inequality, and contribute to health equity, brought him to the Nemours Children’s Health System in 2019. In his role as a Senior Program & Policy Analyst, Bilal has day-to-day responsibility for a project that accelerates the adoption of best practices for multi-sector partnerships working toward broad population health goals.

Dr. Robyn Mobbs
Co-Director, CU Denver
Center on Network Science
Robyn Mobbs is a Senior Instructor at the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs, where she teaches courses in the Masters of Public Administration (MPA) degree program. Dr. Mobbs’ teaching interests include public management and administration, leadership, public policy, health policy, research methods, and systems science. She especially focuses on the application of theories to practice, and aims to foster knowledge, skills and techniques needed to successfully implement policies, projects, and programs to address problems within organizations and in society. Dr. Mobbs’ research interests and expertise focus on health and public health systems, interorganizational relationships, networks, policy implementation and collaborative governance. Her research has been supported by the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Services and Systems Research and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Dr. Danielle Varda
CEO at VNL & Co-Director, Center on Network Science, CU Denver

Shannon Studden
Program Specialist, National Rural Health Resource Center
With extensive experience designing and delivering educational programs and facilitating team events, Shannon brings expertise in the fields of leadership development, group processes, continuous improvement and conflict management.
Shannon has supported leaders and work groups in a variety of industries, including mining, public utilities and health care. She has also taught classes in Management, Organizational Behavioral, Interpersonal Relations and Teamwork at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She received her Master of Science in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse.

Ericka Stallings
Co-Executive Director, Leadership Learning Community
Ericka Stallings is the Co-Executive Director of the Leadership Learning Community (LLC) a learning network of people who run, fund and study leadership development. LLC challenges traditional thinking about leadership and supports the development of models that are more inclusive, networked and collective. Prior to LLC, Ericka was the Deputy Director for Capacity Building and Strategic Initiatives at the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD), supporting organizing and advocacy and leading ANHD’s community organizing capacity building work. Ericka also directed ANHD’s Center for Community Leadership (CCL) which provides comprehensive support for neighborhood-based organizing in New York City. At ANHD she formerly directed the Initiative for Neighborhood and Citywide Organizing (INCO), a program designed to strengthen community organizing in the local neighborhoods. Before working at ANHD she served as the Housing Advocacy Coordinator at the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), managing its Immigrant Housing Collaborative.
