ALUMNI IN ACTION

As interviewed by Bryan Peterson, Billings, Class of 2017

Tell us about you…what do you do, where do you live, family life.

I’m an MBA student at the University of Montana and a preschool teacher at the Missoula International School. I was born and raised in Billings, which is where most of my wonderful family lives. A few of my favorite things are cooking, basketball, Spanish, and reading. I’ve dedicated my career to helping ensure that children across Montana, especially the youngest and most at-risk, have what they need to live long, healthy, happy and productive lives.

Tell us about a favorite memory from your Leadership Montana class.

Eric is a graduate of the Class of 2016 (“Sweet 16”). His favorite memory was arriving at each new session and the love that was shown to everyone upon their return. He enjoyed working through the ongoing class discussion issue with closure coming in their Glasgow session.

What has been the strongest impact that Leadership Montana has made on your life, professionally or personally?

The lessons I learned in Leadership Montana have had an enormous impact on my approach to my work and my private life. Of the many important lessons I learned, likely the most important was to observe the world around me, first and foremost, through the lens of humility.

What do you see as the role for Leadership Montana for our state?

In our penultimate session, two classmates discussed a difficult and controversial issue that had been discussed at nearly every previous session. My entire class witnessed these two create gracious space for one another and learn in public. To conclude the multi-month conversation, one of the two said, “you know, I realize we’re not nearly as far apart on this as I thought.” THAT is what Leadership MT is all about (for me at least!). Perhaps it’s a bit reductive (I also learned that fancy word from classmate Chris Kearns), but Leadership Montana serves to help us all ask ourselves uncomfortable yet critical questions with the inevitable conclusion of realizing that hey, we’re not that far apart.

Finally, tell us what you appreciate most about Montana.

The beer is good, the outdoors are better, the people are best.