2020 Leadership Retreat Announced!
Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego is pleased to announce its 2020 leadership retreat:
Seeking the Heart of Justice in Historic and Hallowed Places.
Recognized for creating safe space for brave conversations and learning, the retreat will provide a unique experience for nonprofit leaders to consider issues of equity, diversity and inclusion and their place in the ongoing efforts to respectfully engage with others.
Offered as a contribution to our community’s efforts to advance these critical issues throughout the nonprofit sector and in the broader world, this retreat will support leaders who are facing a growing call for nonprofits to build a more equitable sector but don’t know where to start. The leadership pilgrimage will provide a one-of-a-kind opportunity to learn experientially, reflect personally, and engage in communal conversations about equity in the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement.
This retreat visits historic sites to ground and inspire brave conversations about how our past informs issues of today and the future. It draws on Circle of Trust principles to create time and space for questions about our own roles in advancing social justice within the San Diego nonprofit community and beyond. 
The four-day experience includes time to visit and reflect on historic sites ranging from the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery. It also includes opportunities to hear directly from citizens who marched on Bloody Sunday and were active participants in these historic events. The retreat will support nonprofit leaders in identifying or deepening their own practices of equity and inclusion.
Seeking the Heart of Social Justice will take place September 27-30, 2020. More details and the application are available on our web page under the program tab. Due to the generosity of the Clare Rose Foundation and the Network, the fee for the retreat is $600. While applications are due by March 15, 2020, nonprofit leaders who are interested are encouraged to apply early as space is limited.
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2020 Learning Groups Begin
Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego kicked off 2020 by hosting three new learning groups. Each group is filled with dynamic nonprofit leaders committed to their own self development and to supporting others in the sector. Led by a facilitator, learning groups provide a safe and confidential space for leaders to explore the ideas and challenges they are holding while building trusted relationships with colleagues. These relationships have proven to be a continued resource of wisdom and friendship long after the six month program has ended. Our longest continuous learning group has continued to meet for over 21 years!!
2020 Executive Learning Group Janine, Fiona, Jamie, Brandon, Wendy, Cat, Nancy, Ted, Elly, Tom and Rhea
Our Executive Learning Group is comprised of nine leaders representing the arts and museums, health, environment, human and legal services, housing, and children. It includes, Jamie Beck, Free to Thrive; Elly Brown, San Diego Food System Alliance; Fiona Chatwin, Villa Musica;
Cat Corral, TranscenDANCE; Nancy Laturno, Mainly Mozart; Ted Miyahara, San Deigo Community Housing Corporation; Brandon Steppe, The David’s Harp Foundation;
Wendy Taylor, San Diego Children’s Discovery Museum and Rhea Van Brocklin, Christie’s Place. The group is led by Tom Hall of AlbertHall Associates and former director of the Old Globe Theatres. Tom participated in our very first San Diego Learning Group back in the early 90s!!
2020 Nonprofit Leaders Group 1 – Jennifer, Tom, Jessica, Natalia, Jeff, Julia, Amy, Natalie, Laura, Erin, Janine and Valerie
Due to popular demand, we are hosting two Nonprofit Leaders Learning Groups this year! Our first group is facilitated by Tom Hall. It includes:Valerie Attisha, Voices for Children; Julia Foster, La Jolla Playhouse; Erin Hogeboom, San Diego for Every Child; Jessica LaFave, Living Coast Discovery Center; Amy O’Conner, San Diego Oasis; Jeff Rowland, SD Public Library Foundation; Jennifer Sinnott, Serving Seniors; Laura White Ludvik, Support the Enlisted Project; Natalia Valeri-Rogers, Media Arts Center San Diego and Natalie van de Burgt, Congregation Beth Israel.
2020 Nonprofit Leaders Learning Group 2 Front: Blair, Emily, Veronica, Giselle, Cristina, Allison, and Laura Back: Janine, Simone, Sharon, Jennifer and Karla
The second group is facilitated by Laura Spiegel, former Executive Director of Home Start and the First Five Commission of San Diego. Laura originally participated in our second San Diego Executive Learning Group and has been leading groups for us for close to 20 years!
This learning group includes: Cristina Aguirre, Barrio Logan College Institute; Giselle Beets, Serving Seniors; Veronica Blea, Interfaith Community Services; Blair Crann, Wounded Warrior Homes; Karla Gomez, Pro Kids/The First Tee of San Diego; Simone Hidds-Monroe, Just in Time for Foster Youth; Jennifer Monroe, Carlsbad Education Foundation; Sharon Morris, Voices for Children; Allison Morrissey, A Step Beyond; and Emily Nelson, I Love A Clean San Diego.
One hallmark of the Network is the continual investment in members to provide them with opportunities to develop their own facilitation skills. This is reciprocity at its best as these skills have allowed us to employ members of the sector to facilitate the programs they themselves have found to be critical to their own development. As a result, in addition to our Learning Groups being facilitated by members, our Creative Encounters by Fieldstone program, which is part of the first Learning Group day, is also facilitated by FLNSD members. This year our team of facilitators included, Renato Paiva, Access Youth Academy; Sue Schaffner, Serving Seniors; Joe Buehrle, SAY San Diego; Carol Schultz and Matt D’Arrigo, Clare Rose Foundation.
Beginning our 26th year, we have convened learning groups each year in San Diego since 1994. Every year, the learning groups have been filled to capacity due, in part, to a 98% peer referral rate. We are grateful for this strong endorsement of our program. The next round of learning groups will begin in January 2021. If you interested in more information or in being added to our interest list, please visit our the program section of our website.
Author’s Insights with Elizabeth Cobbs
Members of Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego’s Leadership Reading Group program had the privilege of learning from author Elizabeth Cobbs at FLNSD’s 4th Author’s Insight luncheon on December 11, 2019. The luncheon was hosted at Villa Musica.
Author’s Insights is crafted to provide an intimate setting for leaders to dive into leadership concepts and challenges showcased by an author in their work. Elizabeth is the author of The Tubman Command, a work of historical fiction which tells the story of Harriet Tubman after the Underground Railroad and as she orchestrates one of the largest plantation raids of the Civil War.
Moderated by Janine Mason, the themes of courage, faith, valor, and trust were discussed at great length during the two hour event. The role of a leader to make people feel safe and the idea of “absorbing fear” were also explored. Elizabeth discussed Harriet’s deep desire and commitment to helping people which fueled her continued efforts to free as many people as she could, to make the sacrifices required to accomplish her goals and to continue to work despite the risks, adding, “not unlike nonprofit leaders”.
After the discussion, Elizabeth signed books and talked with individual members.
Elizabeth Cobbs is an award winning novelist, historian and documentary film maker. She has written eight books, including New York Times Bestseller, The Hamilton Affair. One of her other novels, The Hello Girls: America’s First Women Solidiers, was recently made into an off Broadway musical. She currently holds the Melbern Glasscock Chair at Texas A&M University and is a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute.
FLNSD currently hosts four reading groups to study leadership. The next Leadership Reading Group will begin in September 2020. Registration will begin this Spring.
Fieldstone@4 A Festive Celebration
On December 5, 2019 nonprofit leaders from throughout San Diego County gathered together to celebrate the gifts of the holiday season and one another. Recognizing the importance of taking time out from all of our responsibilities to pause and reflect, both individually and communally, Fieldstone @ 4 provided a festive space for leaders to reconnect with each other and celebrate all that has been accomplished and learned together this year.
Hosted at Green Flash, F@4 has been sponsored this year by First Republic Bank. In 
appreciation, Janine Mason presented David Loseke with a cairn and thanked him for “marking the leadership journey for nonprofit leaders through his ongoing support of our learning community.”
Janine was also honored to be able to introduce our newest team member, Mary Corbett, to more nonprofit leaders in our Network. Since joining us in November, Mary has already attending a Leadership Reading Group, Coaching meeting, Creative Encounters training and a Fieldstone @ 4. She is quickly learning names and faces, but more importantly, how special our community of leaders is. 
In attendance and coming in with the “longest relationship as a result of FLNSD” were Jose Cruz, Sue Schaffner and John Highkin, who met in a learning group together 23 years ago! So very much to celebrate!
Our gathering was warm and wonderful and a true reflection of the leaders who we are blessed to work with in the Network.
Watch our short video featuring the joyful faces of our Network Members –Fieldstone @ 4 Festive Faces
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Our Well Being Warriors
Janine Mason and Anne Vincent have been recognized as WELL-BEING WARRIORS by the Well Being and Equity Network. The national recognition was bestowed on them for their work in creating and offering the Clare Rose Sabbatical Program to support and sustain nonprofit leaders. They are part of a group of 18 leaders recognized from across the country.
The Well Being and Warrior Challenge’s purpose is to highlight people, organizations and businesses whose efforts support healthy outcomes for their communities and those who identify and remove obstacles and increase access to well-being and healthy living. To read more, visit http://wellbeingandequity.net/well-being-warriors/
Janine and Anne created the Clare Rose Sabbatical in 2013. Offered as part of the Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego, the capacity building program offers nonprofit leaders the opportunity to leave their organization with three months paid leave. This allows the top leader time for rest and renewal while providing members of the organization’s leadership team the opportunity to lead the organization in ways that are only possible with the CEO’s absence.
To date, Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego has awarded 23 
sabbaticals to nonprofits in Orange and San Diego Counties, including Make A Wish San Diego, North County Lifeline, Pacific Arts Movement, 211 San Diego, Malashock Dance, Mama’s Kitchen, TransenDANCE, I Love A Clean San Diego, Maninly Mozart, Ivey Ranch, Access Youth Academy, Resounding Joy and United Women of East Africa Support Team, New Village Arts, Families Forward, OneOC, HomeAid Orange County, Mercy House, Susan G Koman OC Grandma’s House of Hope, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation OC and Friendship Shelter.
Since its first cohort, Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego has worked with the University of San Diego’s Nonprofit Research Center to codify the results of the Clare Rose Sabbatical Program. Research shows top leaders return re-energized and inspired to continue their work, a clearer understanding of the organization by members of the board of directors and an increased capacity of the senior leadership team. To date, three interim leaders have gone on to assume Executive Director roles in the nonprofit sector.
Beginning in 2020, the Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego will grant two Clare Rose Sabbaticals to nonprofits serving San Diego County. Each Sabbatical grant is worth $50,000 and includes a consultant to help the organization with preparation and planning. Applications are due January 30, 2020.
The Well Being and Warrior Challenge is a project of the Well Being and Equity Network in partnership with the Leadership Learning Community and is funded by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Well-being and Equity Bridging (WEB) Network is a network of multiple organizations, groups and people working on multifaceted issues to develop solutions that optimize the chances people have to lead the healthiest of lives possible. The Challenge is an opportunity to shine a light on people, businesses, and organizations working to support every person in their communities to live the healthiest lives possible by investing their time and energy into bettering the communities they are a part of and to encourage others to do the same.
Congratulations to Anne and Janine on this well deserved recognition and for their work to make our communities and our nonprofit leaders strong and healthy.
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Welcome Mary Corbett!
We are excited to welcome Mary Corbett to the Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego Family. Mary joins the team as our Network Administrator. In this role, she is responsible for the overall management of the administrative aspects of each of the eight programs in the Network.
Mary earned her PhD in chemistry from Stanford University. She is a former research scientist with a record of publications in high-profile journals turned effective community organizer with key management, communication, and marketing responsibilities at multiple non-profits, including Helen Woodward Animal Center, youth sports leagues, and education foundations. She lives in Scripps Ranch with her husband and twin sons.
Mary will be working in the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. She can be reached at [email protected] and (858) 283-8795.
In the next few weeks, Mary will be meeting Network Members in our Leadership Reading Group program, at our Fieldstone @ 4 holiday gathering, Coaching Meeting, and a Creative Encounters by Fieldstone training. If you will be joining us for an event or training over the next few weeks, make sure to find Mary and introduce yourself.
Welcome Mary!
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NEW Sabbatical Spotlight: North County Lifeline
To date, FLNSD has awarded 23 sabbaticals to nonprofit organizations in San Diego and Orange County. Past participants include, Mama’s Kitchen, Make A Wish San Diego, Mainly Mozart, 211 San Diego, Pacific Arts Movement, Malashock Dance, I Love A Clean San Diego, Ivey Ranch Association, TransenDANCE, Resounding Joy, Access Youth Academy, East African Women’s xxxx and New Village Arts. 
Mason Invited To Leadership Design Studio
Twice a year, a small group of 10-12 thoughtful, dedicated leaders from across the country are invited to West River, Maryland to participate in the Leadership Design Studio. Hosted as part of the Reflective Leadership Project, the program is led by Dr. Judy Sorum Brown. Janine Mason, founder and architect of the Fieldstone Leadership Network, was selected to participate in the Fall cohort, which wrapped up its initial work last week.
The purpose of the Leadership Design Studio is:
- to provide leaders with tools and skills to design and facilitate vibrant, engaging leadership development experiences for others,
- to augment and strengthen their existing knowledge base and skills,
- to open a practice field for creating, testing and applying what they are learning and
- to connect them with a cross-sector network of colleagues for support and counsel in their ongoing leadership development work.
“The opportunity to learn from an icon in the leadership field was such a gift, as was the chance to meet others working in leadership program design. Every day was full of rich material, learning and relationship building. And each day went by so quickly, which was further proof of the richness of the experience. I am excited to bring back all that I have learned to our Network in San Diego”, reflects Mason.
The program included the examination of the principles that undergird quality leadership development work: among them high engagement, engaging diversity of perspective, creating reflective space, including a variety of learning processes, and strategies for modeling and embedding these in one’s program design. The cohort explored a rich collection of timeless print and other media resources for use in leadership development programs and received a tool kit of take-away resources with an emphasis on classic, timeless, cross-cultural materials.
Judy Brown is an educator, speaker, facilitator, poet and writer whose work in organizations revolves around themes of leadership, change, learning, dialogue and creativity. She holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State University, and has served as a White House Fellow, Special Assistant to the US Secretary of Labor, Chief Financial Officer, Assistant Dean and Director of Executive Programs of the College of Business and Management at the University of Maryland, and Vice President for Seminars and Cooperative Programs of the Aspen Institute. Joining Judy as a co-facilitator was Kathleen Glaser.
Kathleen has served public schools as a teacher, principal, college professor, supervisor of student teachers, and co-founder of the Chesapeake Public Charter School in southern Maryland. She received the Washington Post Distinguished Educational Leadership Award and has a life-long passion for creating trustworthy learning spaces and communities. A wise mentor, she is skilled at fostering the leadership development of others.
Much like Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego, the Leadership Design Studio fostered a time of deep learning and relationship building enabling cohort members to return home with a trusted collection of colleagues to support and encourage them going forward. Watch for new offerings as Janine infuses what she has learned into our Network.
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Facilitation for Racial Justice Work
In our work as leaders, knowing about structural racism and understanding the difference between “inclusion” and “equity” is one thing; being effective at helping other people talk about them is another. As Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego prepares to facilitate conversations and hold space for our Network Members to explore issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in the nonprofit sector and beyond, FLNSD Director Janine Mason and FLNSD consultants Lee Ann Kim and Barry Schultz participated in a two-day intensive facilitator training presented by the InterAction Institute for Social Change. 
The training, which took place in Oakland, California and included participants from across the country, focused on teaching facilitators to develop practical skills and tools for guiding others through productive conversations about race, racism, and racial justice that build understanding and agreement. The workshop focused on five essential practices of racial justice leadership:
- Understand Racial Identity Development
- Understand the System of Racialization
- See Systems & Weave Networks
- Facilitate Understanding and Agreement
- Discover Shared Meaning
The team from Fieldstone attended the training as part of their preparation for the Fall 2020 leadership retreat which is being offered in response to various calls from Network members for opportunities to learn and reflect on social justice. Recognized for offering safe spaces for leaders to be brave, FLNSD is using the Courage to Lead retreat framework for leaders to consider issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. This uniquely designed leadership experience, entitled “Searching for the Heart of Democracy in Historic and Hallowed Places”, will allow leaders to consider their place in the ongoing efforts to respectfully engage with and lead others in addressing these challenges. Offered as a contribution to our community’s efforts to advance these critical issues throughout the nonprofit sector and in the broader world, this retreat will provide leaders with time and space to learn experientially, to reflect personally and to engage in communal conversations about the social justice challenges we have faced historically and are encountering currently in our country.
“Searching for the Heart of Democracy in Historic and Hallowed Places” will convene in Montgomery, Alabama and include visits to the Capitol Steps where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed 25,000 people who gathered at the end of the Selma to Montgomery March, the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, the newly opened National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum. Within the backdrop of our nation’s most hallowed places, San Diego leaders will gather to consider and reflect on the questions they may be holding about their role in carrying on the courageous legacies of yesterday and answering the pressing calls to action of today.
If you are interested in joining us for these discussions, please visit our website for more information about our upcoming retreat, “Seaching for the Heart of Democracy in Historic and Hallowed Places” and email us at [email protected] to be put on the interest list.
4th Leadership Reading Group Begins
This month, our fourth Leadership Reading Group in San Diego started with an updated curriculum, additional program components and a new book list!!
Research has shown that reading has always been an essential component of leadership development (HBR, Feb. 2016). However, even with the best of intentions, it is often difficult to get to or finish all of the books competing for our attention. With a goal of creating well-read nonprofit leaders while imparting facilitation skills and building trusted relationships among nonprofit leaders, the Leadership Reading Group offers a unique opportunity to study and develop leadership in a communal setting.
Learning about leadership through literature is not new. Stanford, Harvard and Northwestern, to name a few, host courses using fiction and nonfiction to look at and learn about leadership. As Harvard professor Joseph Badaracco, Jr. states, “Literature lets us watch leaders as they think, worry, hope, hesitate, commit, exult, regret and reflect. As we are able to see their characters tested, reshaped, strengthened or weakened, our view of leadership is broadened and our self-knowledge is deepened enabling us to be more effective as leaders and managers.” This is the hope of our leadership reading group program.
Our program is led by professional literary facilitator, Stefanie Schiff. The group will study leadership using a three month rotation of fiction, non-fiction and business/trade books. The program features a carefully cultivated book list from which members can choose for their monthly reading and peer facilitation opportunity.
Currently, Fieldstone Leadership Network hosts four separate leadership reading groups. Every group has continued to meet regularly after the “completion” of the 10-month program.
Welcome to the 12 nonprofit leaders who have committed themselves to study leadership through literature: Sara Boquin, Barrio Logan College Institute; Kristen Fogle, San Diego Writers, Ink.; Diane Hazard, Solana Center; Monte Jones, Logan Heights CDC; Lesslie Keller, Episcopal Community Services, Tomoko Kuta, The New Children’s Museum; Kent Lee, Pacific Arts Movement; Jennifer Litwak, Housing on Merit; Michelle Schneider, Center for Creative Leadership; Mary Jo Schumann; Lorena Slomanson, Legal Aid Society of SD; Agnes Zsigovics, SAY San Diego.
Professor Badaracco writes that if leaders “want to understand and lead men and women around them they need to observe closely, noticing telling details, reading between the lines, setting work in the context of life, looking for lessons learned from hard challenges, and reflecting on how other’s answers compare with our own.” Self-reflection and the understanding that comes from it has always been a part of Fieldstone Leadership Network San Diego’s programming, and our Leadership Reading Group is no exception. Over the next 10-months, these leaders will do this together. It promises to be a meaningful journey.
And we can’t wait to see the books they choose for their studies!!
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