Leadership Development and Civic Engagement: Training Tomorrow’s Community Leaders
As a founding business leader member of the Design Economics Coalition, Dr. Melanie Hicks brings extensive experience in workforce development and leadership training. As Vice President of Programs for the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation, she trains leaders to think about community challenges through the roles of business, nonprofits, and government. We asked her about her work and its connection to design economics.
How do you explain the real-world impact of what your business does?
We train the leaders of tomorrow to think about community challenges in terms of the roles of business, nonprofits and governments.
What metrics beyond profit do you use to evaluate your business’s success?
Program participation, evaluation metrics, skills development metrics and participant satisfaction.
What creative business models or practices have you implemented?
We train on a combination of our legacy Colorado Civic DNA (TM) and curriculum that is continuously updated based on feedback from our membership.
How have the changing needs of your stakeholders shaped your business decisions?
We are continuously updating our policy advocacy and our recruitment approaches to match the needs of our business members.
About This Interview
Design Economics Coalition members complete a self-interview exploring how their work connects to the three tenets of design economics: acknowledging change, embracing creativity, and cultivating literacy. These responses help connect professionals across sectors who are working to evolve economic systems.
Interested in joining the coalition? Contact us to learn more about membership.