The Santa Maria Valley Chamber hosted a graduation for its Leadership Santa Maria Valley program’s Class of 2023. The celebration event was held at the Radisson Hotel in Santa Maria on Friday, June 9th from 5:30-7PM. Program graduates, their families and employers were in attendance.

Leadership Santa Maria Valley is an 11-month program designed to foster and create future community leaders. Since its founding in 1995, the program has allowed participants to increase their understanding of local issues, challenges and solutions while expanding their personal and professional networks and refining their leadership skills. 

Each year approximately 20 local professionals join the program from across our community’s government, service, non-profit and business sectors. The Class of 2023 consists of members representing the County of Santa Barbara, CoastHills Credit Union, Toyota of Santa Maria, and other various local organizations. 

Through monthly day-long seminars, participants engage and interact with community leaders in areas of Military/Aerospace, Cultural Arts and Diversity, Public Safety, Youth and Education, Health and Human Services, Business and Economic Development, Government, Media and Technology, and Agriculture.

Each LSMV class develops their own unique Legacy Project to give back to the community. This year, the class raised funds to form a financial scholarship to support increased small business owner participation in future program cycles. The class was inspired by the passion of our local small business community including class member Nancy Crawford of Care Connection Transport Services to create this scholarship.

For more information about Leadership Santa Maria Valley, please reach out to Terri Oneschuck, Leadership Santa Maria Valley Program Director at terrio@santamaria.com or visit our webpage here.