Jeremy Davis with his coach at the New Mexico gathering.

 

One of the New Mexico gathering highlights shared by the fellows was the opportunity to meet face-to-face with their coaches — the individuals who walk alongside them throughout their fellowship journey. The fellows describe their coaches as the bridge from learning leadership skills to embodying leadership in their everyday lives, helping them navigate emergent professional issues, putting their new skills into practice and holding them accountable to their commitments.

We invited five fellows to reflect on their coaching experiences: what makes coaching important for today’s leaders, how coaching has sparked their motivation and accountability, how it complements their wider leadership journeys and what they want others to know about coaching’s impact on their work and

  Fellows Timolynn Sams, Turquoise Velarde, Christina Khim, Inella Ray and Marilyn Johnson at the New Mexico gathering.

 

Becoming a transformational leader isn’t only about developing new skills and working hard; it also requires a focus on systemic wellness—mind, body and spirit. Five powerful women leaders, all CLN class four fellows, gathered to discuss what builds and maintains their energy, what gets in the way of self-care and how prioritizing their wellness benefits not only their leadership but also their families and communities.

You can’t withdraw from an empty account

Timolynn Sams, director of external affairs for the New Orleans Parish sheriff’s office, explained the flow of human energy in simple terms: “Building energy is really about a deposit and a withdrawal. What I think we’ve done is consistently

For the Class Four fellows, the value of collective leadership has emerged as an increasingly vital tool to support children and families in our communities. Collective leadership means working collaboratively with others — using shared strength, knowledge and dedication to break down barriers for communities.

At

The WKKF CLN fellows recently gathered in New Mexico for the third in-person gathering of Class Four. Part of their time together included meeting with their accountability partners and reflecting on their leadership journeys.

As leaders, we know that receiving feedback from peers can be vulnerable. However, we also know that constructive feedback

The April 2026 W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) fellows gathering in Washington, D.C. highlighted the role of trust in leadership. Fellows explored how building trust can enhance individual growth and drive equitable community outcomes. We spoke with two pairs of accountability partners on the role of trust in their work and communities: how they build it and maintain it and why it is an essential part of creating an equitable future for children and families. The first pair of accountability partners included Elizabeth Schultheiss from Michigan and Sarah Sattlemeyer from Washington, DC; the second pair of accountability partners included Sia Y. Magadan from California and Yaha Aguilera from New Mexico.

It starts with trust

During its 96-year history of supporting the health, happiness and well-being of children and families, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) has always centered community as the true leaders of the work. From the time he established the foundation, Mr. Kellogg and his advisors recognized that communities know what their children need in order to achieve success and are in the best position to improve conditions. Since that time, the foundation has woven cooperative planning, intelligent study and group action into a unique community engagement approach — one which integrates community voice with lived experience, data, research and analysis.

At the second in-person gathering in Washington, D.C., fellows from each of WKKF’s U.S.-based priority places (Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans) and the national cohort gathered to discuss how WKKF’s community engagement approach informs their community-based work on behalf of children and families. We heard from Christina Andrews, executive director and assistant professor for the University of Arizona’s Wassaja Carlos Montezuma Native American

Three months into class four of the Community Leadership Network fellowship, we interviewed five fellows from around the country to share what they have learned so far. Several noted the shift from focusing on learning new leadership skills to considering who they are as leaders—a process that requires them to slow down. The fellowship has given them a chance to take that time, as well as engage with assessment tools like the Center for Creative Leadership’s DAC framework, which stands for Direction + Alignment + Commitment, and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to support reflection on their leadership skills and potential for growth.

Learn more about the fellows’ journey from Yaha Aguilera, New Mexico

As part of their second in-person gathering in Washington, D.C., class four fellows in the WKKF Community Leadership Network fellowship had the opportunity to visit several Smithsonian Institution museums, including the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Museum of American History, the African American Museum

In April 2026, class four of the WKKF Community Leadership Network fellowship met in Washington, D.C. for the second in-person gathering. We asked several of the fellows to reflect on their own respective communities and the unique challenges that children and families face, as

Class four of the WKKF Community Leadership Network kicked off in February with its first in-person gathering in Battle Creek, Michigan. This fellowship brings together 80 dynamic leaders in local communities and the national child- and family-serving ecosystem to connect, grow and lead collaborative, transformational change on behalf of children, families and communities.

As part of the program, each fellow has the opportunity to choose an accountability partner from a different