Omaha, Neb. — The Association of Leadership Programs (ALP) National Conference in Omaha has a special session at this year’s event from July 13-16.

Center for Immigrant & Refugee Advancement (CIRA) Director of Community Engagement Khenda Mustafa, along with the Greater Omaha Chamber’s Daniela Rojas Florez, will take the lead on Building Bridges Across Systems: A Blueprint for Cross-Sector Leadership Collaboration.

According to the ALP, this session reflects the main themes of the conference: connection, trust, and practical community leadership.

“This session brings the conference theme to life in a powerful way: showing how trust, coordination, and shared leadership can turn connection into real community impact,” the ALP said in a statement.

Mustafa and Rojas Florez are using their successful program MyCity Greater Omaha, as the leading example for how to accomplish “building bridges.”

The leadership program they founded and run focuses on developing leadership skills among immigrants and refugees in the Omaha area. The first cohort recently graduated with a ceremony attended by representatives from the mayor’s office.

“Creating welcoming communities takes all voices from many organizations and sectors coming together to proactively plan for inclusion and solutions,” Mustafa said. “That’s what CIRA did with the Chamber as well as countless other stakeholders. And because the program was created collaboratively, that spirit continues with all the graduates. We’ve already seen graduates create positive impact using the knowledge and cross-sector relationships they gained through the program and really build bridges across systems.”

Mustafa and Rojas Florez’s session will offer a step-by-step guide for conference attendees to remove barriers to civic leadership, foster belonging in the leadership realm, and strengthen leadership development so attendees can replicate MyCity GO’s successes in their own communities.

“It is so exciting to think about how our session will help open opportunities for immigrant leadership across the country,” Rojas Florez said. “In order to make a real impact, we must all work together and recognize the different strengths we all bring to our connected communities.”

As communities across the country seek new ways to strengthen civic engagement and build more inclusive leadership pipelines, Mustafa and Rojas Florez hope their session will demonstrate that meaningful collaboration is not only possible—it is essential.

By sharing the MyCity Greater Omaha model with leadership professionals from across the nation, CIRA aims to inspire more communities to invest in immigrant and refugee leadership and create systems where everyone has the opportunity to contribute, lead, and belong.