Each year the Keweenaw Chamber of Commerce presents awards in the following categories:
- Community development,
- Growth,
- Customer Service/Quality/Teamwork,
- Transformation/Innovation
- Young Professional of the Year, and
- Person/Project of the Year
The 2016 SparkPlug Award for Project of the Year was awarded to Leadership Keweenaw, with a mission to challenges participants to develop their leadership skills through networking, education, exciting and fun activities and community involvement. The vision: Leadership improves the quality of life for Keweenaw residents and guests via its graduates’ active, consistent practice of inclusive leadership. To build our leadership talent to positively impact our economy, environment, and society.
This award is provided to a high impact project that is notable within the community and will provide lasting benefits to businesses and community member. Leadership Keweenaw was one of eight nominations for the Project of the Year category.
Dana M. Johnson, Ph.D., SBE faculty and alum and chair of the steering committee for Leadership Keweenaw, along with Marilyn Clark, MTEC SmartZone CEO and SBE alum, were two of the nine team members to receive this award for their work in the design, development, and presentation of the leadership program. The team has been working on the project since summer 2015, with the first class beginning in August 2016 with a planned graduation of 2017.
