Announcing the 2021 Leaders of the North Bay Honorees!

North Bay Leadership Council is proud to announce the honorees for this year’s Leaders of the North Bay and the teen chosen to give the Keynote address at the awards luncheon.  The Leaders of the North Bay Awards luncheon is a signature event for NBLC.  This year it is being held at the Embassy Suites in San Rafael on December 10th.  The Leaders event was designed to recognize leadership in the North Bay, while the Teen Speech contest is a way for us to help grow leadership in our youth.  NBLC seeks to foster leadership at a time when it is sorely needed. 

Here are the 2021 Honorees:

  • Murray Legacy Leadership, Leadership over a Lifetime:  Steve Page, Retired

A leader with integrity, the North Bay is a better place because of Steve Page.  Steve Page was President and General Manager of Sonoma Raceway for almost three decades.  With Steve at the helm, Sonoma Raceway’s campground housed evacuees from several of the wildfires. The Raceway has raised nearly $7 million for charity. Food drives, blood drives, charity rides, training grounds for disaster response — the track has been made available to help better the community. Steve gives back to the community in numerous ways, always making time for worthy causes.  He serves on or has served on:  Speedway Children’s Charities, Redwood Empire Food Bank, Social Advocates for Youth, Santa Rosa Junior College Foundation, 10,000 Degrees and the Sonoma Valley Hospital Foundation. NBLC is especially proud to honor Steve’s dedication to our organization where he has served the greatest number of years as chair of the Board.

Steve has lived his life by successfully following these two rules: “Have fun and help people.” Steve Page is known for his inclusive leadership style, sharp wit and big heart. Whether it be taking the raceway through all kinds of innovations and improvements, helping local charities, leading community efforts or embracing change, Steve is the “go to” guy in the North Bay.

  • United We Stand, Community Building:  Keith Woods, North Coast Builders Exchange

Keith Woods, CEO of North Coast Builders Exchange, exemplifies extraordinary leadership skills and a fierce dedication to community-building in the North Bay. Keith has been a catalyst for making the community better through his work helping rebuild after the devastating fires in the region; partnering with the CTE Foundation, SCOE, and SRJC to launch the North Bay Construction Corps; implementing CHOICES, a high school dropout prevention program; and serving as “Sonoma County’s MC,” where he has volunteered hundreds of hours helping nonprofits raise money. Keith makes the “building” in community building an everyday effort.

  • Paint the Community Green, Environmental Stewardship: The Climate Center

The Climate Center stands out for its leadership in climate adaption and mitigation. They have a track record of reducing greenhouse gas emissions: they played a key role in the tremendous growth of Community Choice Agencies (CCAs) in the state over the past 6 years, with 24 CCAs now providing on average 88% greenhouse gas-free electricity to over 11 million residents in more than 200 cities/counties. The Climate Center has a powerful theory of change (strategy). It describes the optimum way to deliver rapid greenhouse gas reductions at scale. And they have a bold, comprehensive Climate-Safe California campaign that details how California can respond with urgency to the climate crisis. More important than ever, the Climate Center continues to double down on its investments for a climate-safe future by broadening and deepening it local, regional and statewide policy efforts.

  • The “Light Bulb” Went On, Innovative/Entrepreneurial Spirit: Steve Dutton, Dutton Ranch

Steve Dutton is a stand-out leader in the local agriculture industry.  He has proven his ability to innovate in providing housing for his employees without public financial support; creating training programs to provide ESL workers with information needed to work safely on local farms; and leading the charge for more visa allotments for farming.  He and his family were named the 2017 Sustainable Farmers by the Sonoma County Harvest Fair for their leadership on sustainable farming practices which demonstrated his entrepreneurial spirit to bring more resiliency to farming.  Steve is respected for his problem-solving and creative thinking with an emphasis on looking out for his community and the people in it.

  • Empowering the Latino Community, Leadership within the Latino Community: Canal WiFi Team

The Canal neighborhood of San Rafael had very limited Wi Fi which was very detrimental when the pandemic hit as it was difficult for students and workers to use the internet to learn and/or work. As part of a collaborative approach with the City of San Rafael, San Rafael City Schools, The Canal Alliance, Marin Community Foundation and the Marin County Free Library, the County of Marin lead a project to address digital equity in the Canal neighborhood.  With the financial support of local donors, the team built a free outdoor wireless network and community COVID-19 website for e-learning services and for residents accessing critical information and services.  With the leadership of the core group, design, communication, installation and digital literacy was combined to provide not only access, but also Chromebooks and digital literacy training.  The empowered Latino community leapt at this opportunity with the daily use of the network climbing, with 43% of users accessing the network for school, 33% for general internet use, and 21% for work-related activities. This project represents how much collaborators can achieve when they work in concert to meet the needs of the community’s residents through the empowerment of access.

  • From Red Tape to Red Carpet, Leadership in Government: David Wain Coon, College of Marin

College of Marin (COM) Superintendent/President David Wain Coon is the epitome of a collaborative leader who skillfully cuts through red tape and finds innovative solutions that improve the campus climate. The result is a host of best practices which seek to eliminate barriers to COM’s services and offerings. Highlights include completion of Measure C modernization projects and passage of Measure B for funding of campus renewal; earning the prestigious 2020 Dr. John W. Rice Diversity and Equity Award—celebrating the community college that has made the greatest strides toward faculty and staff diversity or student equity; LGBTQ Caucus Leadership for CCLC; and creating COM’s first Equity Summit, held in 2021.  During his 10+ years as COM’s president, Dr. Coon has worked extensively to engage with the local community and businesses including supporting numerous nonprofits like North Bay Leadership Council, 10,000 Degrees, Marin Promise Partnership, SchoolsRule-Marin, League of Women Voters, American Association of University Women, Novato and San Rafael Chambers of Commerce, Marin Brain Injury Network, and others.

We hope you will be able to join us on December 10th to celebrate the leadership of these six amazing honorees.  Sponsorships are available which not only help underwrite the luncheon but provide the funding for 7 college scholarships that we give out to the teens who submitted entries into the speech competition.  For sponsorship information, please contact info@northbayleadership.org.

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