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Taking The Lead Terry Strine has made a smooth pass of the baton to Jennifer Cohan, and the new CEO of Leadership Delaware is off and running By Bob Yearick
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ennifer Cohan had worked 31 years in Delaware state government and 12 years in academia when she decided to retire from public service last August and step into the world of nonprofits. She had fashioned an exceptional, trail-blazing career in Dover, serving in numerous leadership roles, becoming the first female director of the Division of Motor Vehicles, and culminating in her appointment in 2015 as Department of Transportation (DelDOT) secretary under then-Gov. Jack Markell. So what did it take to lure Cohan away from this three-decade-long climb up the government ladder? “All of my favorite things rolled up into one little nonprofit,” she says. That’s Leadership Delaware, Inc., a program created by Terry Strine and his wife, Sandy, with the help of former Gov. Pete du Pont, in the summer of 2008. Strine, who was chairman of the Delaware State Republican party from 2003 until 2008, came to du Pont with a seven-page outline of a year-long program of issue-oriented forums aimed at informing and training young Delawareans to be leaders in three areas: their professions, politics, and the non-profit sector. ►
Jennifer Cohan (red suit) poses with the current class of Leadership Delaware Fellows. APRIL 2021
| OUTANDABOUTNOW.COM
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