Leadership Rhode Island wins national innovation award

The award recognizes outstanding innovation in leadership programs that are creative, unique and impactful.

The selection committee of the Association of Leadership Programs unanimously chose Leadership Rhode Island to receive the 2014 Excellence in Innovation Award.

The award recognizes outstanding innovation in leadership programs that are creative, unique and impactful.

Mike Ritz, Leadership Rhode Island’s Executive Director and a graduate of LRI’s 2007 class, accepted the award at the Northeast Regional Leadership Conference in New York on June 30.

Ritz participated on two panels at the conference where he discussed Leadership Rhode Island’s accomplishments in the turn around of Central Falls (2012-2013), the demystification of Quonset (2013), the Providence Journal/Rhode Island College collaboration of the Publick Occurrences series, and LRI’s newly launched statewide effort to improve the Rhode Island workplace and psyche through the “Make RI Stronger” initiative. He emphasized that cities and states can’t afford to not have a whole-system-in-the-room, non-partisan, leadership program that takes bold actions to strengthen communities.

“For the sake of our communities, it’s time to turn our think-tanks into do-tanks,” said Ritz.

By Tatiana Pina