Hobart’s Run has been a Hill School initiative for the Pottstown Community for more than a decade. Since its inauguration, Twila Fisher has been the Executive Director of the program. This year, however, the organization will see a new head.
As Fisher departed the Hill to head to Ellsworth, Maine, she passed the torch to Alyssa Slade, Hobart’s Run’s new Executive Director of Community Engagement and Economic Development. Slade was also on the Pottstown delegation for the Pottstown Regional Community Foundation.
Slade first encountered Hill and Hobart’s run through LinkedIn. But the connection started to truly develop during the interview process. During the process, she shared that she immediately found Hill as “a great community and a great place to work” because she felt that Hill was “really trying to vet and get somebody that’s truly interested.”
Slade assumed her new role on Sept. 15. During her brief time here, she has been listening to the voices of community members and organizations, seeing what their vision is for Pottstown.
As the new Executive Director, Slade’s work is half and half regarding community engagement and economic development. She shared that she has been working with Head of School Kathleen Devaney for the Hill side of things. Specifically, with the strategic plan and the implementation of it for Hobart’s Run. She also aimed to embed “social impact opportunities into the classroom” and finding ways for Hill members to invest in Pottstown.
One of the community projects going on, Slade shared, is the idea of a Pottstown Passport. The idea is to start “giving discounts to students to go and invest in the local community.”
Slade also suggested her plan for more student facing developments with Hobart’s Run. “I have plans, I do have plans,” she hinted. Currently, though, she is engaged with Cathy Skitko’s, Director of Hobart’s Run Communications and Community Partnerships, community service program.
On the economic development side, Slade is currently overseeing some grants with the aim to revitalize the area and ensure safety; one of the projects include “a lighting grant to get lights on Beech Street.”
Another project in conversation is the development of a passenger rail going from the Reading to Philadelphia via Pottstown and Phoenixville. Slade believed that the “federal budget’s getting closer to approving” the project.
Slade’s overall vision for her leadership in Hobart’s Run is about “finding the balance between the two.”
“If Hill is thriving, then Pottstown can thrive, and if Pottstown is thriving, then Hill can thrive,” Slade said.
Prior to Hill, Slade spent around a decade at Alvernia University in community engagement work as the Senior Director for the Holleran Center for Community & Global Engagement.
But she was no stranger to Pottstown, as it was her family’s hometown and quite close to her heart. At Hill, she found the community to be “incredibly welcoming and has never stepped into a role where I just felt like this is where I’m supposed to be.”
“I’m going to many different coalition and board meetings and steering committees, and there’s the same people are in the room, and that’s amazing that you’re getting the same people talking about the same things together, and truly trying to collaborate,” Slade said. “It’s a true collaboration.”
Regarding Hobart’s Run’s recent fall open house in High Street, Slade shared that it was very successful. She noted that “it was a wonderful event for me as a new individual, to get to meet with the community partners.” Hobart’s Run also launched a resident survey at their open house to see what the community is looking for, “whatever it may be.” She also shared that Hobart’s Run will be hosting a few more introductory meetings. Specifically, one in December at the Rickett Centre.