Coeur d’Alene Chamber celebrates first NEXT GEN leadership graduates

Forty-two young professionals graduated from the Coeur d'Alene Regional Chamber’s first NEXT GEN class Thursday, finishing a six-month program built to keep the county’s next managers, board members and civic volunteers connected to local employers. The pilot paired each participant with a mentor and pushed the chamber’s workforce pipeline work beyond ribbon-cutting optics into a direct search for future leadership.

The first cohort showed how broad that pipeline already is. Amy Warker, president of the Coeur d'Alene Downtown Association board, was matched with Katlin Muckenthaler, 25, who works at Northwest Specialty Hospital. Matt Adams of Coeur d'Alene Tractor was paired with Jordan Anderson from the city of Coeur d'Alene Parks and Recreation Department. Other mentors included Jimmy McAndrew of Mountain West Bank, Amy Voeller of the Salvation Army Kroc Center, Rick Rasmussen of Northwest Specialty Hospital and Maggie Lyons of Charity Reimagined, linking the class to banking, health care, nonprofits, public service and local business.

The chamber structured NEXT GEN around monthly MasterClass-style leadership sessions and monthly one-on-one meetings with senior business leaders. Linda Coppess, the chamber’s president and CEO, said the response went beyond expectations, with more mentors volunteering than the program needed. The chamber launched the pilot on Jan. 15, 2026, as a six-month effort for young professionals ages 23 to 35, with meetings set for the third Wednesday of each month from January through June and a $500 fee for participants.

The program was built around a problem Coppess and the chamber have been tracking for years: young adults are disappearing from traditional civic groups and chambers. In a June 2025 chamber column, the organization said participation from people ages 18 to 40 has steadily declined in groups such as chambers, Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions. Coppess had earlier pointed to one chamber meeting of more than 300 people in which only a handful of attendees in their 20s and 30s raised their hands, a snapshot she used to argue that younger residents were underrepresented even as they make up the future workforce.

The chamber said 40 participants and 43 mentors were present at the kickoff, underscoring demand from employers and community leaders who want a deeper bench for succession and volunteer roles. Its planning also calls for a working Next Generation committee made up of young professionals, mentors and organizational leaders. For Kootenai County businesses that have relied for decades on the chamber’s network, the first graduating class signals a practical effort to turn local employees into the next generation of decision-makers.