Olaf Growald
Jennifer Trevino, new executive director of Leadership Fort Worth, wants to refresh the organization’s programs — meant to identify and cultivate the city’s future leaders and connect them to networks and causes they care about — and ensure those offerings and recruiting classes are diverse and inclusive, reflecting the city’s population growth. “I’m a big believer in not just a seat at the table, but how do you grow the table.”
Trevino, a graduate of the LeadershipClass 2009, was chief development officer for Girls Inc. of Tarrant County when she accepted the post at Leadership Fort Worth. She was previously a management consultant with Brittain-Kalish Group in Fort Worth, which specializes in health care; vice president of administration and chief of staff at UNT Health Science Center; and a product marketing manager for RadioShack. She was a member of the city’s Race and Culture Task Force on racial equity and ran for the Fort Worth City Council’s North Side District 2 seat in 2017. Trevino has an MBA in marketing from TCU.
After then-executive director Harriet Harral announced her retirement in June 2019, “I had some folks in the community reach out and ask if I’d be interested.” That picked up in August last year and culminated a Zoom-dominated interview process and job offer around Thanksgiving.
Diversity “Making sure we’re making our programs attractive to a truly diverse community is one of the things that’s most important to me. So many of our graduates go on to do good. We want to make sure they’re as diverse and inclusive as possible.”
Turning Point: Her LeadershipClass Experience “It a was a great experience. HSC was my employer at the time. I learned so much about Fort Worth, the history, the inner workings, just the kind of things a regular resident wouldn’t necessarily know about, the incredible networking. My class was probably about 45-50 folks. I can still reach out to them.”
Meeting Fort Worth’s Needs “I also knew there were some things that needed to be refreshed, needed to be modernized. We’re the 13th largest city in the country, but it doesn’t always feel that way. The board is taking a look at the community. Are we meeting the needs? The demographics of the city are changing. There are parts of Fort Worth that feel very rural. There are parts of Fort Worth that feel like a whole other city. There are parts of Fort Worth that are brand-new shiny.”
Bringing Her Business, Nonprofit, and Consulting Background to Bear “It gives me a different perspective on some things. We want Leadership Fort Worth to be thought of as an organization that you go to, a place where we’re producing and refining professional and community leaders.”
Scholarships “The majority of participants are sponsored by their employer, which is why we are making intentional efforts to recruit participants and provide financial support for qualified participants who may not have their employer’s financial support to make the financial commitment to the program.”
Leadership Fort Worth Vitals
- Main program: Leadership Class
- Established: 1972
- Female participants: More than 55%
- Participants of color: 24-42%
- Applications annually: More than 50
- Industries: About 20 represented annually