From CEOs to city officials, the 2027 Leadership Atlanta class includes a diverse mix of movers and shakers. The nonprofit organization selected 86 community leaders to participate in the nine-month program, which offers training to help move the metro Atlanta area “towards unity and shared prosperity.”
Members of the organization’s 56th class include: F. DuBois Bowman, president of Morehouse College; Jason Winston, member of the Atlanta City Council representing District 1; Jorge Estevez, television news anchor with WSB-Channel 2; Blake Patton, founder and managing partner at the venture capital firm Tech Square Ventures; and Jasmine Crowe-Houston, founder and CEO of Goodr.co, a tech-enabled food waste management company.
“It's a privilege to uphold Leadership Atlanta's legacy of uniting the region's most influential, committed, and innovative leaders, all driven by a common goal of advancing our community,” Pat Upshaw-Monteith, president and CEO of Leadership Atlanta, said in a prepared statement.
During the program, participants will take part in a variety of seminars and service projects to explore regional issues with the aim of building relationships and finding ways to be more effective in their leadership roles.
“Leadership Atlanta’s program reinforced that, as leaders, we must constantly remind ourselves to listen, have hard conversations, cultivate curiosity, and be truly authentic,” Anna Roach, executive director of the Atlanta Regional Commission, said in a statement. An alumna of the 2024 Leadership Atlanta class, Roach will serve as volunteer program chair for the incoming group. Leadership Atlanta was founded in 1969. It has become a symbol of the city’s emphasis on corporate citizenship and its history of diverse leaders working together. The first class started when a group of then-Atlanta Chamber of Commerce officials saw the need to nurture well-informed leaders who could help grow the city’s economy amid the struggles of the Civil Rights movement, according to its website.
Future Sen. Wyche Fowler, corporate CEOs, and judicial and civil rights leaders were among that initial class. In the decades since, the classes have remained a mix of Atlantans in a diverse set of industries and roles.
The program now has more than 4,000 alumni and continues to address similar challenges as that first class.
Read more about the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2027 and view the full list of selected leaders.