Leslie Klusmire brings more than 40 years of experience working with elected officials, government agencies, private enterprises, employees, boards, community organizations, and citizens in leadership, organizational development, strategic planning, problem-solving, and building community consensus.

Although Leslie has not previously conducted leadership training specifically for the square and round dance community, her career has required her to apply many of the same skills effective volunteer leaders need when navigating change, solving problems, working with differing perspectives, and planning for the future.

Her professional career has included serving as a city and county manager, community development director, and project manager for major infrastructure and land-development projects, including projects involving world-class ski resorts, in Colorado, California, and Washington.

Throughout her career, strategic thinking, collaboration, stakeholder engagement, communication, problem-solving, accountability, and moving complex initiatives from planning to action have been central to her work.

While serving as Community Development Director for the City of Glenwood Springs, Leslie co-founded and coordinated the Roaring Fork Forum, an informal coalition involving nine municipalities from Aspen to Rifle, three counties, and state and federal agencies throughout the Roaring Fork Valley. The Forum addressed issues that crossed jurisdictional boundaries, including regional transportation planning, recycling and solid waste management, and area-wide trail development.

Strategic planning and facilitation have also been recurring elements of her career. She has facilitated planning sessions for governments and organizations including Leadership Aspen, the Governor's Smart Growth Conferences, the Colorado Association of Ski Towns, and the National Sleep Products Association.

Her career highlights include manager of complex, multi-agency transportation project reporting to 17 elected officials from three local governments - Aspen, Snowmass Village, and Pitkin County, state and federal agencies, the Aspen Skiing Company, technical consultants, and community stakeholders, and as the project manager of the Washington-side public decision-making process for a complex bi-state, eight-agency transportation project to bring light rail from Portland into Vancouver in the Interstate 5 corridor.

Leslie has extensive training in mediation and conflict resolution and has helped resolve significant organizational disputes. She studied leadership for mid-career professionals with Dr. Ronald Heifetz, founding Director of the Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University.  Her experience in helping organizations and communities navigate change has also been recognized professionally. A presentation she developed, "How to Deal with Rapid Change," was the top-rated presentation at the Colorado Municipal League's 1997 annual conference. 

These experiences required more than managing projects. They required listening to competing interests, communicating across organizational boundaries, engaging people affected by decisions, navigating disagreement, building consensus, and helping groups move forward when there was no simple solution.

Her experiences provide a practical foundation for helping square and round dance leaders lead organizations through change. Effective leadership isn’t about dismissing concerns or clinging to the past. It’s about listening, understanding different perspectives, finding common ground, working constructively through resistance, building consensus, and involving people in creating the way forward.

This training isn’t about telling clubs what to change. It’s about developing leaders who can think strategically, listen deeply, navigate difficult conversations, build shared understanding, involve those affected by decisions, and turn ideas into collaborative action.

Leslie brings a career of helping organizations and communities navigate complex change. Participants bring something equally valuable: their experience, knowledge of square and round dancing, and understanding of the people and organizations they serve. Together, those perspectives create the foundation for meaningful leadership and lasting change.

Leslie dances at plus level with the Monarch Mavericks in Salida, Colorado, and the Pueblo Pepper Steppers.  She lives in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, the largest high-mountain valley in the world, and travels to dances with a carpool of square and round dance fanatics for an hour to two hours each way every week. The valley used to have four clubs, and they all dissolved.  She's plotting to start a new club, but can't find a teacher or caller. She is a phase III cha-cha and rumba dancer who is craving to dance the waltz, two-step, and jive, and will be traveling this fall two hours one way to take lessons. She is envisioning a worldwide square and round dance popularity tidal wave in the near future.