LT Alumni Spotlight: Dr. Stephan Blanford, LT'97
Dr. Stephan Blanford, LT’97
Executive Director, Children’s Alliance
Tell us what you do and why it matters.
As the Executive Director of Children’s Alliance, I lead a team of staff, board, volunteers and more than 6,000 members from every corner of Washington to persuade the state legislature to enact policies in the best interests of children. Because we have an explicit racial equity stance, we focus on the needs of BIPOC children and their families and communities, believing that they are often furthest away from their potential because of racism and societal neglect. The racial reckoning that has happened in our state and around the country since the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery has made our work more salient, and we can point to the recent investments of more than $1 Billion in issues affecting children and their families as proof of our impact.
I also do direct service or volunteer on the boards of several local and national organizations involved in children’s issues and was elected and served a 4-year term on the Seattle School Board (and what a piece of work that was)!
How did LT impact your work?
My participation in LT was an inflection point for my leadership, as I undertook my first nonprofit role during my LT year, inspired by the nonprofit leaders I met and the impact that I saw that they were having in our community. I gained an understanding of the interconnectedness of seemingly disparate issues and how a concise and potent problem analysis and theory of action could be a difference maker in whatever arena one chose to apply their talents. I was prompted by my time in LT to go back to graduate school to enhance my leadership skills and upon graduation immediately applied those learnings once elected to the Seattle School Board. While in LT, I also met many soon-to-become leaders, passionately committed to progressive change in their fields of interest – and their examples and friendships continue to inspire my work.
Truly, each of these opportunities would not have been possible without the learnings, connections and inspiration gained through my Leadership Tomorrow year. And, given that I met my wife-to-be during the LT retreat in Silverdale and we’ve been together for 26 years now, I’m pretty sure that I squeezed more juice out of LT experience than anybody, before or since!
Which of LT's values resonates most with you? Why?
Each of these values is essential in the work that we do, but as we grapple with this country’s racial reckoning and the aftermath of the pandemic, the values of antiracism and social justice must be the foundation of any significant societal change. And I don’t mean the performative antiracism that is fashionable today (like planting a “Black Lives Matter” sign in your front yard and thinking that you’ve done all that you must do to catalyze change). I mean the personal work that helps to detoxify one from the racism that is infused in our narratives, media, educations and daily interactions. And then a close examination of the systems and institutions that we lead and participate in to uproot racist policies and practices. The real work of antiracism and social justice! The recently departed Archbishop Desmond Tutu puts it simply: "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."
For more information about advocating for children, contact Stephan at stephan.blanford@childrensalliance.org.