Kentucky’s New Leaders Council elects new directors, welcomes new board members

KENTUCKY (WTVQ/Press Release) – Kentucky’s chapter of the New Leader Council (NLC) has unanimously elected Carmellia Jackson and Dexter Horne as its new directors to lead the program.

The public charity recruits, trains and promotes the next generation of progressive leaders.

The chapter also brought on seven new board members.

With this new position, Horne’s hope is to “expand the impact of NLC Kentucky so that it becomes the central talent incubator, volunteer convener and agenda-setter for civic-minded progressives in the Commonwealth.”

Jackson and Horne were both in the NLC Kentucky Class of 2018 and have held other roles on the board. Over the past two years, Jackson has been an institute co-chair responsible for executing programming for the annual NLC cohorts, while Horne has served as co-chair of the recruitment committee. They will continue the work of departing co-directors Benjamin Haydon and John Weber.

“I’m excited to see the influence Dexter and Carmellia will have on NLC Kentucky,” said Weber. “Our commonwealth needs exceptional young progressive leaders, and Carmellia and Dexter are absolutely ready to continue contributing by focusing their efforts through NLC Kentucky… There’s work to do and I’m grateful to have them at the helm.”

Jackson is the Program Manager for Louisville Girls Leadership and a Behavioral Health Clinician at Mindsight Behavioral Health Group. She graduated from Berea College in 2016 and earned her Master’s in Social Work and Master’s in Couple and Family Therapy from the University of Louisville in 2021.

Jackson looks forward to meeting new leaders across the state. She has been on the board since she completed the program in 2018 and credits her passion to the life long friends and connections she made in the program, the high quality and intriguing curriculum and the national network acquired upon graduation.

Horne is a research analyst at The Council of State Governments focusing on barriers to employment for people with disabilities. In this role, he engages state leaders to discuss disability inclusion policy issues and solutions and conducts research to help policymakers create employment programs that improve workforce outcomes for this population. He graduated from Centre College in 2016 and earned his Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Kentucky’s Martin School of Public Policy and Administration in 2018.

Jackson and Horne  will run NLC Kentucky alongside a board of 15 other young professionals  from different industries and regions across the state.

As Horne moves to the director role, the recruitment team is being led by returning board members Eli Yussuf and Abigail Tudor. Taking Jackson’s place as institute co-chair is Iman Ali, who will conduct the training sessions with returning board board members Gordon Henry and Stef Hogan.

Emory Williamson is a new board member who will work with Carly Phelps as co-chair of the selections team. The selections team leads the interview processes and other board deliberations on who should be admitted to each year’s NLC Kentucky cohort. Once selected to join the cohort, each fellow will be paired with a mentor chosen by mentorship co-chairs Andi Dahmer and Brittany Cook.

Kinsey Morrison joins Ellen Cartmell to lead the NLC Kentucky communications team. Eve Wallingford will work with Chase Sanders on the alumni team who engages with NLC Kentucky’s network across the state. Two new members, Max Morley and Patrick Carrington will make up the finance team.