The National Forum for Black Public Administrators is holding its annual event in downtown Grand Rapids focusing on leadership development and solutions to challenges facing communities.
Jordoun Eatman is a board member of the local chapter and believes Grand Rapids can be a model for other areas.
“We have great public-private partnerships. We have award winning city leadership, and we have diversity in leadership at the county level, the city level, on the education level.”
The conference welcomes public service professionals, local changemakers, and national thought leaders to share strategies, values and vision while learning from each other.
“The focus of this year's event is “Unwavering Strategic Leadership” in a time of uncertainty. It's really to focus on, regardless of what's happening at the broader scale around the nation, how do we navigate through these times? How do we lean on best practices that are happening across the nation within local municipalities?”
EMERGE 2025 runs Thursday from 7:45AM to 5PM at the Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives.
For a weekly dose of news right to your inbox, sign up for the WGVU newsletter.
