Meet Our 2019 Baldwin Leaders
The Baldwin Leadership Program works to build strong community leaders who reflect Lancaster County today and tomorrow.
Through an 18 month process, Baldwin Leaders will pursue a project of their choice and design meant to inspire personal leadership development. From trips to ancestral homelands, to skills development, to children’s book writing, our newest class of Baldwin Leaders is an extraordinary group committed to emboldening extraordinary community by building their own capacity!
Meet our 2019 Baldwin Leaders:
Salina Almanzar
Franklin & Marshall College
“My project involves two phases: The first is collecting oral histories and photos of Puerto Ricans here in Lancaster. Secondly, I will attend a week-long residency at the Center for Embodied Pedagogy & Action (CEPA), a co-op on the island of Puerto Rico. CEPA connects Puerto Ricans from the mainland with Boricuas on the islands, through community service. Lastly, I will present the series of photographs and interviews of Puerto Ricans in
Lancaster as a book and exhibition. The ultimate goal is to elevate the stories of Puerto Ricans who have (and continue to) settle in Lancaster.”
Tina Campbell
ASSETS
“This project will bring together both a better understand and history of my own familial culture and a learning of new language and culture. In addition, it will help me achieve my life-long goal of being multilingual. My ancestral family is from Germany. My work includes daily interactions with entrepreneurs who speak Spanish, a language I have always had a goal to learn. In order to both keep an understanding of my own ancestral language and to learn the language of almost half of my city, I will pursue studies in both Spanish and German – heavily concentrated on Spanish.”
Jackie Concepcion
Welsh Mountain Health Centers
“Through a short story i will attempt to highlight the key transformational moments that have led me to living a purpose driven life of community service. The backdrop for my story would involve me training for and then hiking to and from the bottom of the Grand Canyon. With every step, my story will unfold in stark contrast to this place that was shaped by its relenting environment and the passing of time. My determination to overcome obstacles, and what I have learned along the way, is how I have come to maximize the impact I seek to make in the community I live in and serve.”
Amer Al Fayadh 
Church World Service
“As a newcomer, I struggled to find a meaningful connection to this new community. Soon after, things shifted in the right direction because of one opportunity; CWS gave me professional employment and the community connection I sought. During this program, I will challenge myself through a year-long study to develop a sense of belonging and self-awareness as a leader in my new home, and also as a catalyst in the refugee/immigrant communities. I will reflect on the knowledge gained during the program to promote a culture of equity and inclusion in our exquisitely diverse city.”
Mike McKenna
Tabor Community Services
“I am captivated by the power of home. Becoming a dad and the head of a housing organization both inspires me and leads me to worry about the future of the next generation. I want to use the Baldwin to connect the themes of home, justice, and conservation through immersing myself in the process of creating children’s stories featuring characters drawn from my lifelong love of endangered species. I plan to take art classes to hone my illustration skill, study storytelling at a national conference and a children’s literature course, and engage children served by Tabor in their own storytelling.”
Vanessa Philbert
Community Action Partnership of Lancaster County
“Today’s culture is filled with pressing demands from our work, families, friends, social media and even our own self-talk. These demands keep us from intentionally contributing to our needs and development. The Baldwin Leadership Program will be the catalyst to awaken the woman who has been buried under all of the competing priorities in my life. As I embark on a journey of self-discovery and self-care I will focus on getting to know myself and my desires. Through the art of storytelling I will embrace my own story with the hope to create a space for other women to find power in their stories.”
Oliver Saye
Boys and Girls Club
“I was born in Liberia to a Liberian Mother and a Guinean Father. Going back home is a pilgrimage of returning to my African roots through culture, language, and of course food. This will give me a deeper understanding on what they had to endure and how they had to live and survive in this new land. This will also be a physical pilgrimage to both Liberia, Guinea and also to the Gullah /Geechee on the cost of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. This will be both a culinary and history journey.”
Over the next 18 months, the Baldwin Leaders will embark on journeys that challenge their limits while encouraging them to dream fearlessly, and build deeper relationships with each other throughout the process.
