For more than 20 years, the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce ran Leadership Hermiston, a 10-month leadership development program for northern Oregon professionals from a range of sectors, but paused it during the pandemic before eventually ending it entirely.

That's when Umatilla Electric Cooperative began to study options to revive and expand the community program and the network it fostered.

“When the program went away, there was a real gap in how emerging leaders were being connected across industries and across the region," says Umatilla Vice President of Operations Joshua Burns.

Committed to developing a skilled pool of local leaders, the Hermiston-based co-op resurrected the program through its subsidiary, Umatilla Basin Resources.

“Leadership Hermiston helped build relationships and community stakeholder connections that don't happen by accident, and we didn't want to lose that momentum," Burns says.

Burns joined the co-op in 2024 in part to revamp the program, which he renamed the Proud River Leadership Academy to appeal to more applicants. As a former chamber board member and president, he saw firsthand the impact that investing in leaders can have on communities.

“Positive leadership changes lives," Burns says. “The more you put into developing someone as a positive leader, the more you can expect in terms of that investment."

Now in its second year, the academy has kept some of the previous features, including site visits, peer cohorts and program length—students meet one day a month over nine months. Most of the classes, taught by Burns, focus on leadership development and communication skills.

But the former chamber official “deepened" other aspects with a mission statement—“powering professional leadership and community engagement"—and a more rigorous curriculum with required reading. He also added new topics, like effective workplace communication and empowering others to achieve goals.

For the first time, there's also a public speaking requirement.

“We expect every one of our participants to be leaders within our community, and they will need to engage in public speaking," Burns says.

The public speaking component blends community engagement in an especially creative way. Participants make a 15-minute speech about a local group that's important to them and get grades from peers. After that, the class votes on the speech “that really tugged at everyone's heartstrings," Burns says.

“We add the scores from the rubrics and the popular vote and whoever has the highest overall score, we give $5,000 to their organization," Burns says.

The new curriculum also places a bigger emphasis on understanding the legislative process with a visit to the state capitol in Salem and facetime with lawmakers.

“I really wanted to grow people's awareness of how we are governed," Burns says. “You'd be amazed at how many professionals have a very limited awareness of how local, state and federal governments work."

While some of the participants, like Currin, live and work in Hermiston, others live further out in the Columbia Basin region. Some drive as much as 50 miles one-way to attend the academy at Blue Mountain Community College in Hermiston.

Among the first cohort's 20 participants were a fire chief, law enforcement professionals, business owners and a tribal department manager.

“A deep part of the richness of our course each year is the diversity of experiences and backgrounds our participants bring to their cohort," Burns says. “We have folks who could be responsible for 800 or 900 people, or eight or nine. We can all learn from one another."

An example of the fifth cooperative principle (education, training and information), community-based institutions like the academy will help the area thrive, Burns says.

“We're experiencing an economic boom, and we will need skilled, vibrant leaders," he says. “The academy is a valuable resource, especially in a small community."