Deb Burd hates the word leader. Funny, because that’s the buzz about the New Vineyard resident lately.

Burd, the executive director of the Western Mountains Alliance, has recently been chosen by the Leadership for a Changing World program as a finalist for its 2003 leadership award.

The Ford Foundation program is in partnership with the Advocacy Institute of Washington, D.C., and the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University. Each year, the organization recognizes the nation’s top leaders for their efforts in positively changing their communities.

This year, Burd looks well on her way to topping the list, having held strong through a rigorous selection process that started with 1,300 candidates, then 178 and now a group of 29. This summer, a team from the program will travel to Farmington and meet with her colleagues and board members at the alliance before announcing the 17 top leaders of 2003.

If selected, Burd will receive $30,000 over two years for her own personal development and education, and WMA will receive $100,000 over two years for programming support. She was nominated by Theo Kalikow, president of the University of Maine at Farmington and the former chairwoman for the alliance’s Board of Directors.

Despite the money that’s on the line if she is selected as one of the 17 winners, Burd is more than satisfied just to be considered.

“It would really be a wonderful infusion of funds for this program, but to even be nominated by Theo was an honor,” Burd said Wednesday when a vibrant spray of congratulatory flowers from her co-workers sat on the desk beside her. “Then to become one of the top 29, it was really almost breathtaking.”

For Burd, who was raised in western Maine and has stayed here because of the “quality of life, clean air, clean water and strong communities,” being a leader is about being accessible, resourceful, credible and having a sense of humor, she says.

“What I strive for is to lead, but also know when to follow. We are all leaders in some way,” Burd pointed out.

Although she doesn’t like the word leader because she finds it exclusive, definition aside, to her a leader is “somebody who involves themselves through their passion to make positive change or help support the particular issue they are interested in.”

The alliance, which Burd has been director of since 1994, works to improve the quality of life by strengthening regional identity, by honoring rural value and the environment, by supporting sustainable economic and community development and by preserving the cultural heritage and heritage industries of western Maine, according to their mission statement.

It serves residents of Oxford, Franklin, Somerset and Piscataquis counties.

“I love rural America, and western Maine is rural America,” she said on why she loves her job. Her lengthy-list of community service activities includes serving as president for Mount Blue Community Access Television, and being a board member for more than a half dozen other statewide agencies.

“Western Maine has a deep cultural heritage that has given birth to a group of very resourceful individuals who have found a creative balance between the economy and the environment,” she said.

The award goes beyond just her as an individual, Burd said. It represents a supportive staff and board beside her at the alliance, and all of the people of western Maine.

“If I am lucky enough to succeed in winning this award, it’s a success for all of us. I am amazed to just get this far,” she said.

One person who isn’t amazed Burd has gotten this far is Kalikow, who stands firm by her nomination that Burd is a most deserving leader.

“Deb is the most incredible networker I’ve ever met. She has such tenacity. Man, she never gives up. She really has a vision for western Maine and she can enlist people in achieving that. People come to her because they know she will help them do their thing, and not just her thing,” she said.

When asked if she believes Burd will be selected as a finalist, Kalikow leans back, laughs, and passionately says, “Of course. How can they not. What she is doing is wonderful. This will validate what the alliance has been doing quietly for the past 15 or so years and it’s a stamp of approval for Deb.”

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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