“I’m Duggan Cooley ’07 and I’m the CEO of the Pinellas Community Foundation. I’ve been a resident of Pinellas County for 13 years and I graduated with the Leadership Pinellas Class of 2007 and that happened to be one of my first experiences inside Pinellas County.
The Pinellas Community Foundation is the only foundation of its kind solely dedicated to helping all Pinellas County residents, it’s open to accepting funds and support from anyone in Pinellas County and supports a wide variety of organizations dedicated to making life better for everyone in our community.
I got involved in Leadership Pinellas at the request of one of our board members when I started at Religious Community Services in Clearwater. They thought it would be a great way to get introduced to the community, to other community leaders and to make sure I had a good grasp of what was going on inside Pinellas County.
One of the most valuable leadership lessons that I have learned is to listen first and to talk later. Get to know the members of your class not just the ones that you click best with but those that maybe don’t talk as much make sure you take time to listen and learn what they have to share, oftentimes they have great information wonderful insights and with them you can create lasting relationships that make a difference for all of us.”