The Annual Leadership Gillespie County Alumni Mixer was held at Texas Wine Collective Tuesday August 5th. Alumni going back to the first class of 1994 were in attendance to meet the class of 2026—the 33rd class. Next week, the Class of 2026 will attend a retreat to get to know each other, develop their class mission, and begin organizing themselves for the nine sessions from September 2025 to May 2026.

The sessions that the class will coordinate and learn from leaders throughout our community include:

• City and County Government plus Community Infrastructure
• Non-Profits
• Business, Industry and Agriculture
• History and Culture
• Emergency Services
• State Government
• Tourism and Media
• Wild Card (class will select a topic to wrap up the monthly sessions)

The class will also complete a community project and volunteer at nonprofits including for their fund raisers. The class will be busy executing on their mission.

I am pleased to announce the members of the Leadership Gillespie County Class of 2026.

• Fernando Albiter, CTEC
• John Cedillo, Be Hospitable Consulting
• Elsa Crenwelge, Fischer & Weiser
• Jessica Dionne, Pioneer Museum
• Lance Eaker, Eaker BBQ
• Valerie Elkins, William Chris Wine Company
• Shelby Christine Freitag, Texas Regional Bank
• Jeanette Hesker, The Grace Center
• Keidel Hughes, The Albert Hotel
• Haley Hull, National Museum of the Pacific War
• Grace Igler, Mustard Architects
• Lauren Itz, Fredericksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Josh Leamons, Searchers
• Jody Miller, Heath Family Brands
• Shad Pellizari, Methodist Hospital Hill Country
• Andrea Price, City of Fredericksburg/Gillespie County Health Division
• Peggy Reichenau, Happy State Bank
• Linda Rodriguez, Security State Bank & Trust
• Raul Sanchez, Methodist Hospital Hill Country
• Jason Tennison, Grand Central at Milam
• Rebecca Treiber, Capital Farm Credit
• Shawn Vinklarek, Guido

Thank you to Methodist Hospital Hill Country for sponsoring the Leadership Gillespie County program.

The Chamber also has a leadership development program for high school students in our community, called “iOpener.” Ashley Seelig of Fischer & Weiser and Emily Harper of Emi’s on Austin are leaders for this program. We are pleased to announce that, once again, Create Healthy will sponsor the iOpener program.

These two leadership development programs are examples of ways our Chamber is fulfilling its mission: To Champion Our Business Community Through Collaboration, Information and Service.