Members of the ADL Mountain States Region’s Robert B. Sturm Mountain States Leadership Fellows Program joined with 900 ADL leaders and activists from across the country from May 6th – 8th in Washington DC for ADL’s annual National Leadership Summit. Government officials, policy experts, journalists, opinion makers and other public figures addressed the participants on some of the most critical issues of the League’s agenda.
Featured topics and speakers included:
- World champion gymnast and activist, Aly Raisman; Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic, Susan Goldberg; Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein; CEO of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson; Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Catherine Lhamon; Representative Joe Kennedy III (D-MA) and Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).
- On the Front Lines: Civil Rights in America – Activist Stories panel featuring speakers Wajahat Ali, journalist and consultant for the U.S. State Department; Lacey Schwartz, Outreach, North America; Roy Waterman, JCPA’s Criminal Justice Initiative; and Mara Keisling, National Center for Transgendr Equality.
- Anti-Semitism in 2018 keynote session featuring panelists Jonathan Weisman, The New York Times; Yair Rosenberg, Tablet Magazine; and Bari Weiss, New York Times moderated by ADL’s CEO and National Director, Jonathan Greenblatt.
Members of the Mountain States delegation also met with staffers at the offices of several members of Congress, including Colorado Representatives Mike Coffman, Diana DeGette, Ed Perlmutter and Jared Polis, regarding areas of legislative interest to ADL.
View videos of these sessions to learn more about the Summit.
Applications are now being accepted for ADL’s 2018-2019 Robert B. Sturm Mountain States Leadership Fellows Program. The Program was created in order to involve people between the ages of 25 and 40 who are committed to ADL’s mission “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all” in the work of the League. The Sturm Fellows Program, which runs from September-June, exposes participants to educational programming about the substantive issues of ADL’s agenda and gives them the opportunity to become ADL leaders in the community. A highlight of the Program is attendance at the ADL National Leadership Summit in Washington, DC.
Applications are due by August 1, 2018. Applicants will be notified of acceptance decisions by the middle of August. Through this competitive application process, ADL recruits and invests in a diverse group of young people that are committed to civil rights, religious freedom, and anti-bias education. While ADL accepts nominations from community members for potential Sturm Fellows, applicants need not be formally nominated to apply.
Upon acceptance, Sturm Fellows are required to sign an Acknowledgment of Expectations, reflecting their commitment to attending:
- A half-day retreat
- Monthly meetings highlighting an ADL issue and/or program area. Sturm Fellows are advised of all meeting dates if accepted into the program and are expected to miss no more than two meetings. Missing more than two meetings may impact a participant’s eligibility to attend the National Leadership Summit.
- The National Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., which will take place in the spring of 2019 (participants pay their own travel costs and a registration fee, which is partially subsidized by ADL).
Sturm Fellows will also have the opportunity to attend:
- All ADL Board of Directors meetings (two at no cost)
- ADL Fall Dinner
- ADL Civil Rights Awards Reception
- ADL’s No Place for Hate® Celebration Breakfast
- ADL’s Governor’s Holocaust Remembrance Program
- Meetings of ADL’s standing committees
While there is no charge for the Robert B. Sturm Mountain States Leadership Fellows Program, all Sturm Fellows are asked to participate in ADL’s annual campaign by making a recommended minimum contribution of $250 per participant. Please contact ADL Associate Director of Development at aholsopple@adl.org for more information or download the application today!