WASHINGTON, D.C. – Western Mountains Alliance has received word that Executive Director Deborah M. Burd has been chosen by Leadership for a Changing World of Washington, D.C., as a finalist for its 2003 Leadership for a Changing World award.
Leadership for a Changing World is a program of the Ford Foundation in partnership with the Advocacy Institute of Washington, D.C., and the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University.
Each year the organization recognizes 20 leaders and leadership groups from all across the United States for their community leadership efforts in improving lives. Choosing leaders who are not widely known beyond their immediate communities, the program seeks to confirm that resourceful individuals and groups are bringing about positive change in virtually every community.
Nominated for the award by Dr. Theodora J. Kalikow, president of the University of Maine at Farmington, Burd was one of 1,300 nominations. She is one of 178 candidates moving to the next level of consideration. Should she be chosen as one of the 20 recipients of the award, she will receive $100,000 over two years to support programs of the alliance and an additional $30,000 to explore educational opportunities for her work.
Executive director since 1994, Burd works as an advocate for Oxford, Franklin, Somerset and Piscataquis counties. With a mission to improve the quality of life by strengthening regional identity, by honoring rural values and the environment, by supporting sustainable economic and community development and by preserving the cultural heritage and heritage industries of western Maine, the alliance gives her scope to exercise her greatest strength – bringing people together.
By helping people identify what they want to do, by helping them to find the resources to do it and by her continued support and encouragement to maintain focus, Burd has nurtured a dozen small grassroots projects in the region.
The next level is a review by one of six Regional Selection Committees. Final selection will be announced in mid-summer.
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