Brigitte McQueen: ‘We all want the same thing for Omaha’ Brigitte McQueen wasn’t sure she belonged in the 2011 Leadership Omaha class. The Greater Omaha Chamber program is designed to develop effective leaders who will strengthen and transform the community. “I felt I was so different from everyone being a person of color and on the verge of being an extremely liberal hippie,” said McQueen, executive director of The Union for Contemporary Art. But the personable leader found support and friendship among her classmates, who work in banking, insurance, real estate, law and other fields. In fact, McQueen’s classmates named her “Most Likely to Change the World” at the close of the 10-month program. Her group 62
still gets together, and some of her former classmates attended her recent wedding. Local business benefits from the program, said Lynda Shafer, manager of leadership development at the Chamber. “Since 1976, Leadership Omaha has been bringing together vibrant leaders from all areas and giving them opportunities to learn not just about Omaha, but about and from each other.” McQueen applied for Leadership Omaha because her board president, Watie White, took the class and found it to be an amazing experience. “It was an opportunity for me to spread the word about The Union for Contemporary Art,” she said. The organization’s mission is to strengthen
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Omaha’s creative culture by providing support to artists and advancing the understanding of contemporary art forms through education. “We unite artists and the community,” McQueen explained. “I’m from Detroit, and I’ve lived in Seattle and New York City. The arts community in Omaha is one of the most amazing that I’ve had a chance to be part of.” Through Leadership Omaha, she learned what it takes to make the city work. “I can’t think of a better way to create a great employee. It was overwhelming to be in a room of corporate professionals and realize that I belonged there. We all want the same thing for Omaha. We all want the same thing for our families.”