Emerging Leader – Rep. Frank White [podcast]

In July, State Rep. Frank White (R-Pensacola) attended the 2017 Emerging Leaders Program, sponsored by the State Legislative Leaders Foundation and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

“Each state nominates a new legislator and I was lucky enough to get the pick this year from Florida,” Rep. White said on “Pensacola Speaks,” the News Talk 1370 WCOA radio show hosted by Inweekly publisher Rick Outzen. “It’s fantastic, a wonderful week.”

The 2017 Emerging Leaders Program seeks to inspire state lawmakers to continued careers in public service. The state legislators were nominated by the Speaker of the House, President of the Senate or Minority Leader from their state. The nominees are those lawmakers who by their actions have demonstrated those qualities we associate with leadership—integrity, compassion, intelligence, vision, and common sense.

“It wasn’t a policy conference or networking or any kind of that,” said White. “You go with a mountain of reading on a wide variety of topics, and it’s all sorts of stuff from non-fiction to fiction. It’s in that college format of the Socratic dialogue, where the professor puts you on the spot. It really develops a really good discussion.”

Rep. White said he walked away to two key takeaways.

“One, I left with a better understanding of, I think, a lot of my colleagues in the legislature,” he said. “You know, sometimes I just scratch my head and think, ‘Why do you care so much about that issue? Why do you think that really matters?’ I left seeing things from other people’s eyes.”

White added, “With that comes better policy. Whether I think they’re right or I think I’m right, I can make the case in a way that would affect them.”

The second takeaway involved optimism about the future.

“I left with a sense of hope,” he said. “There were some amazing people. It’s that feeling where you want to pinch yourself and look around like, ‘Why am I in this room?’ There were some people there with just amazing backgrounds doing important work.”

Rep. White continued, “We can just come together and talk about problems in a way where you drop your R or D label, take off the partisan jersey you’re wearing, and just try to solve problems. I left with hope for our country, hope for our system of government.”