Commissioner Page Lemel Completes Leadership Training at UNC School of Government.

City and county governments directly touch every person in North Carolina. When local elected officials work together, the community benefits and when city and county officials from across the state come together, the entire state benefits.

Transylvania County Commissioner Page Lemel was selected to join the Advanced Leadership Corps (ALC) offered by the School of Government at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in conjunction with the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners and the North Carolina League of Municipalities.

Led by School of Government faculty member Vaughn Upshaw and Local Elected Leaders Academy Director Donna Warner, ALC is a weeklong leadership program that helps elected officials become better listeners, communicators, and collaborators. Municipal and county participants uncover the broader challenges of governing, build personal leadership skills, and learn how to get their messages across.

“Participants in the Advanced Leadership Corps develop skills to lead across party lines and work with others to create a vision for improving North Carolina,” said NCACC Executive Director Kevin Leonard, who took the course this year. “I came away with a renewed appreciation for how important it is to continuously train and develop professionally. Our commissioners who participated in ALC should be recognized for the significant investment of time they made to become better leaders for the residents of their respective counties.”

"It was such a privilege to have this opportunity to work with peers from across the state,” said Transylvania County Commissioner Page Lemel. With support from other elected officials and staff from the School of Government, I was able to learn about my personal leadership style and how I might be more effective as a community leader. I am very grateful for the county's support of my attendance at the Advanced Leadership Corps. The connections and resources we developed within the program continue to impact me on a daily basis in my job as a county commissioner."

The program, funded by Prudential, the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners and the North Carolina League of Municipalities is in its fourth year and has trained 80 elected officials, from 30 municipalities and 27 counties across the state.