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Inside
AWB Institute
Fourth Class of Leadership Washington Begins Year-Long Program
The Leadership Washington Class of 2018 met for the first time at the Policy Summit
in September, kicking off a year-long program that will take them across the state to
experience and learn about Washington’s diverse regions and economic sectors.
AWB Institute Honored with Job Placement
& Training Award from Puget Sound
Business Journal
• Joey Mertlich, business development executive, Wilson Albers & Community AWB President Kris
Johnson accepted a
workplace training
award from the Puget
Sound Business
Journal on July 14.
The Job Placement
& Training Award
honors AWB, the AWB Institute and its members for
helping ensure that the next generation of workers are
ready to fill the highly skilled jobs of the 21st century.
• Katherine Morgan, president and chief executive officer, Greater Spokane Valley
Chamber of Commerce This was the first-ever Success in Education awards event.
AWB was among four award honorees.
Over nine months, culminating in May at the AWB Spring Meeting in Spokane, the group
will visit high-tech research facilities, farms, global export terminals, and much more.
This year’s Leadership Washington participants — the fourth class — are:
• Andrew Thompson, senior project manager, Granite Construction Company
• Brent Downey, senior environmental engineer, Kaiser Aluminum
• Brodey Mann, claim section manager, State Farm Insurance
• Dustin O’Quinn, partner/shareholder, Lane Powell
• Mike Kennedy, engineering/Fix It Now supervisor, Energy Northwest
• Ryan Eddy, director, regional affairs, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
• Josh Lozano, senior district representative, Office of Congressman Dan Newhouse
• Matt Hawley, principal nutritionist/business manager, Lamb Westson
• Eric Wolf, director of policy and programs, Workforce Training & Education
Coordinating Board
• Kevin Leneker, chief executive officer, Single Handed Consulting
• Marcela Navarro, HR business partner, Cadet
It’s not too soon to begin thinking about joining Leadership Washington’s fifth class,
which will meet for the first time in September 2018. Applications and information are
online at www.awbinstitute.org/leadership.
Two-Bus Cross-State Tour Highlights Strength and Value of
Manufacturing
In a first-of-its-kind event, AWB and Institute leaders crisscrossed Washington from Sept.
29 to Oct. 6, visiting manufacturers large and small and highlighting the value of modern
manufacturing to the communities and the state’s economic health.
Lawmakers were invited to join the tour, and rallies held in towns and cities across the state brought
out local media, other businesses, even school children to get to know their local manufacturers.
The tour featured a special manufacturing-themed wrap on the buses, and employees at
the dozens of stops were all encouraged to “sign the bus” in a sign of how many people’s
livelihoods are linked to manufacturing in Washington.
The tour began Sept. 29 on the Olympic Peninsula and Grays Harbor. On Monday, Oct. 2,
two buses began touring the state, starting in Olympia and Bellingham. The weeklong tour
hit towns large and small, from Waterville and Pullman to Vancouver and Seattle.
The tour was timed to coincide with Manufacturing Summit and the National Association
of Manufacturers’ Day on Oct. 6.
10 association of washington business
AWB received the Job Placement & Training Award,
presented by Alaska Airlines Director of Community
Relations Shaunta Hyde, Puget Sound Business Journal
Publisher Emory Thomas, and longtime radio personality
Patti Payne.
AWB President Kris Johnson accepted the award, noting
the work of the AWB Institute in workforce development,
along with the innovative and far-reaching work by
employers across the state in helping students and
educators better understand the real-world skills needed
in today’s workplaces. Johnson mentioned SEH America
in Vancouver and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories
in Pullman as a few of the many employers making a
difference for today’s students.
The day’s other honorees were the Technology Access
Foundation for high-tech diversity education, the
philanthropists at the Raikes Foundation, and former Gov.
Dan Evans.
Amy Anderson, director of the AWB Institute, discussed
the role of AWB and the business community in workforce
development with the Puget Sound Business Journal in an
interview published to coincide with the award.
“What we are really trying to do is to identify the skill gaps
that our businesses are facing and find the appropriate
tools in our programs to address the gaps,” Anderson