Elon University Hosts Leadership Alamance Class of 2026 for Daylong Experiential Learning

Elon University welcomed the Leadership Alamance Class of 2026 to its campus on Feb. 19, 2026, for a daylong higher-education program that placed employer-sponsored professionals into sessions on experiential learning and civic engagement. The campus visit is part of a year-long Leadership Alamance schedule that brings cohorts to sites across Alamance County for immersive learning.

Participants spent the morning on campus engaging with content on experiential learning and civic engagement, and then spent the afternoon learning more about the Alamance-Burlington School System and other educational sites throughout the community. Elon’s program offered participants insight into the university’s approach to experiential learning and civic engagement.

Pamela Runestad, assistant professor of anthropology and a member of the Leadership Alamance Class of 2025 who helped plan this year’s programming, framed the visit as a community partnership. “Elon University works with community partners outside the institution in a number of ways every day,” Runestad said. “The Leadership Alamance Class of 2026 will get a snapshot of what that is like, and hopefully consider ways we can work together in the future.”

Sponsored by the Alamance County Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Alamance brings together professionals from business, government and nonprofit sectors across Alamance County. Participants are selected through an application process, and their employers sponsor their involvement, allowing one full-day absence each month for immersive learning experiences across the county.

The Alamance Chamber introduced several Class of 2026 members on its Facebook page on Sept. 16, 2025, naming Nancy Carpenter (Elon University), Rachel Collins (Employment and Independence for People with Disabilities), Brandi Crenshaw (Always Best Care Senior Services), Rhianna Cullen (Waypoint Wellness LLC), Aaron Fleming (Alamance-Burlington School System), Fred Gainey (Cone Health Alamance Regional), and Eric Gerringer (City of Gibsonville). The chamber’s post thanked sponsors Alamance Community College, Cone Health, Glen Raven and Labcorp and recorded 88 reactions, 8 comments and 2 shares in the captured post snippet.

The Alamance County Chamber website shows a Class of 2026 application page and lists upcoming chamber events and programs that intersect with Leadership Alamance timing, including Access Connections After Hours on Feb. 24, 2026; ElevateHER Entrepreneurs and an Education & Workforce Council meeting on Feb. 26, 2026; and a ribbon cutting for The Village Grill on Mar. 6, 2026. The chamber’s site also lists funding programs such as the Impact Grant Program, Opportunity Alamance Loan Program and Small Business Grant Program and provides contact details at (336) 228-1338 and info@alamancechamber.com.

Throughout the program year, the cohort will travel to sites around Alamance County to explore education, foodways, history, law enforcement and public services and health care, giving employer-sponsored leaders structured opportunities to connect county institutions and inform policy and practice back at their workplaces.