Connections at the PNW CSTA Leadership Summit
Fourteen members from four regional CSTA Chapters – Washington, Oregon, California, and Alaska – came together in at East Valley High School in Yakima WA for our first ever Pacific Northwest Leadership Summit.
It was quite a day of learning, planning, and transitions. The day began with a keynote that included welcome messages from CSTA’s Executive Director Jake Baskin and the CSTA Board Chair, Dr. Abigail Joseph, and a preview of the chapter leader toolkit delivered by Ashley Love-Smith, the Manager for CSTA’s Chapters & Community Systems. The morning informational sessions included Running an Effective Non Profit and Supporting and Growing Your Chapter. Lunch time was not only a time to chat and connect, but also to get a tour of the East Valley HS Robotics/Engineering/Makerspace. We rounded out the day with a work session in the afternoon to review our goals from last year and plan for the upcoming 2026-27 school year.
Though it was already a full day, we could have done so much more!
Special thanks to Anthony Barba and East Valley HS for hosting in his epic classroom, as well as the rest of the summit planning team: Michelle Laskowski, Lawrence Tanimoto, Randy Macdonald, Denise Thompson, Sean Glantz, Tracey Sconyers, Josh Caldwell and Lauren Bricker. We are also extremely grateful to CSTA for providing a chapter grant to support the event.
