Tag: Leadership Mcpherson

This spring, four Farmers Alliance employees completed the Leadership McPherson Class of 2026, a long-standing program designed around the belief that leadership is an activity accessible to everyone. The program empowers participants to take initiative, strengthen their leadership skills, and inspire meaningful changes throughout the McPherson community.  

This year, Suzie Hill, Policy Service Team Manager; Jamie Hubin, Customer Service Manager; Jennifer Schroeder, Policy Service Team Manager;and Bonnie Smith, Claims Service Team Manager, completed the nine-week long program, which included an intensive leadership session featuring the Kansas Leadership Center’s When Everyone Leads curriculum.

Each year, the Leadership McPherson class is challenged to identify a local need and develop a project that specifically benefits McPherson-area youth. The 2026 class created Suds & Smiles, an initiative designed to reduce barriers for local families by providing free laundry services. The class partnered with McPherson Express Laundry Center and local service organizations to bring the initiative to life and provide meaningful support to families in the community.

“Leadership McPherson was a unique opportunity to connect with other local professionals who shared a common goal of growing their leadership skills,” said Jamie Hubin, Customer Service Manager. “I’m grateful that Farmers Alliance supported several of our FAMI leaders in participating and investing in our development. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to expand their influence and leadership impact, not just those in formal leadership roles. Anyone and everyone can be a leader!”

Farmers Alliance is incredibly proud to have four employees who are committed to growing as leaders and making a difference both within our organization and throughout the McPherson community. Congratulations to Suzie, Jamie, Jenny, and Bonnie on completing Leadership McPherson and for their dedication to serving and strengthening our community!

Brett Hudson, Senior Product & Compliance Manager at Farmers Alliance, recently graduated from the McPherson Chamber of Commerce Leadership McPherson class. Brett was one of 11 individuals from McPherson County that participated.

Leadership McPherson partners with the Kansas Leadership Center to administer an in-depth, educational program that focuses on developing individual leadership skills, giving participants the skills to move organizations and businesses forward. The participants met several times over a 90-day period and received training from multiple community members as well as instructors from the Kansas Leadership Center. Brett said that “much of the curriculum focused on understanding ourselves and how we can leverage different strategies for interacting with others in more productive ways.  We spent time talking to several community organizations who are working to help youth in the area and discussed options for projects we could do as a class to help them.”

As part of the class, participants were required to plan a project to benefit the youth of McPherson County.  “Most of the community groups we spoke to said that there is a lack of awareness in the community of what services they provide,” said Brett. As a result of their research, the group decided that a Community Connection Fair within the local schools would be an excellent solution to the problem. The fair would allow these community groups to come together in one place to talk with teachers and students about the resources that they can provide. “We are excited about the potential to connect these organizations with teachers and students in our community. There is such a great need for this, and we hope it’s a way we can make the lives of youth in our community better,” said Brett. The fair would be open to both charitable and for-profit organizations that provide youth services in McPherson County. They expect to complete the project by the Spring of 2023.

Farmers Alliance is excited for Brett and what the leadership class has been able to accomplish so far. We are pleased to have great leaders on our team who want to make a difference in their communities.