About This Event
Community health thrives on connection, trusted relationships, and leaders willing to do the work of building stronger systems. The Cultivating Connections Community Health Symposium brings together community-based organizations, practitioners, and community members for a day of shared purpose.
Effective communication across sectors improves knowledge exchange, trust-building, and crisis coordination in our community. Based on insights from the RISE Southeast assessment conducted by Highroots, this event focuses on improving communication by introducing High Reliability Organization (HRO) training, LEAN principles, and simplifying language to strengthen community impact and resilience.
HRO frameworks focus on building a culture of safety, error prevention, and continuous learning. When applied to public health and community nonprofits and combined with efficient tools, these methods provide organizations the capacity to prevent systemic breakdowns. These methods improve processes across organizations for emergency preparedness, food access, housing security, and more before a crisis occurs. At the upcoming Cultivating Connections Community Health Symposium, we’re exploring how these tools work together to reduce staff burnout, streamline cross-sector communication, and improve outcomes for community members.
Keynote: Lee Shainis
Lee Shainis specializes in making everyday communication clear, concise, and impactful, sharing immediately useful strategies that are often overlooked. Since founding Simplify Language in 2022, he has led more than 300 live trainings for government agencies, educational institutions, healthcare organizations, businesses, and nonprofits, with content shaped by lessons from the more than 10,000 people he has trained. His sessions are known for being fun, efficient, and surprisingly challenging, helping everyone from frontline staff to executive leadership communicate with greater clarity and trust.
Lee's expertise is grounded in two decades of leadership as co-founder and CEO of Intercambio Uniting Communities, a nonprofit that connected 10,000 adult immigrants with 5,000 volunteer teachers and scaled its model nationally. At Intercambio, he led hundreds of cultural humility trainings and authored The Immigrant Guide, a resource used by 300,000 people. He has delivered keynotes for organizations including the American Bar Association and the South Carolina Department of Education, and holds a BBA from the University of Michigan. Lee lives in Boulder, Colorado, with his family.
featuring...
Nilaja Montgomery
Nilaja Montgomery is a U.S. Army veteran, military spouse, and parent whose family navigates life with PTSD through therapy and community support. Based in Colorado Springs, she serves as President of the Board for Soul 2 Soul Sisters, co-runs Veterans' Digital Ally, and co-founded the Digital Ally Project to expand digital equity for veterans and the broader community. A 2021 Women of Influence Award recipient from the Colorado Springs Business Journal, Nilaja holds an MBA and a master's degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Adler University, and is a Licensed Professional Counseling Candidate in Colorado. She facilitates healing circles and community-driven healing while serving diverse populations through school-based and clinical therapy.
and Emily Tamayo
Emily Tamayo has called Colorado Springs home since 2001 and has built her career around connecting people with resources and creating opportunities where they've historically been denied. She currently serves as a Youth Program Specialist at RISE Southeast and as a School Board Director for Harrison School District 2. Originally from Hawai'i, her studies on Native Hawaiian land-back movements shaped her commitment to community-led change. Emily holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs and is guided by her life's motto: "Love courageously."
Reserve your seat today!
About This Event
Community health thrives on connection, trusted relationships, and leaders willing to do the work of building stronger systems. The Cultivating Connections Community Health Symposium brings together community-based organizations, practitioners, and community members for a day of shared purpose.
Effective communication across sectors improves knowledge exchange, trust-building, and crisis coordination in our community. Based on insights from the RISE Southeast assessment conducted by Highroots, this event focuses on improving communication by introducing High Reliability Organization (HRO) training, LEAN principles, and simplifying language to strengthen community impact and resilience.
HRO frameworks focus on building a culture of safety, error prevention, and continuous learning. When applied to public health and community nonprofits and combined with efficient tools, these methods provide organizations the capacity to prevent systemic breakdowns. These methods improve processes across organizations for emergency preparedness, food access, housing security, and more before a crisis occurs. At the upcoming Cultivating Connections Community Health Symposium, we’re exploring how these tools work together to reduce staff burnout, streamline cross-sector communication, and improve outcomes for community members.
Keynote: Lee Shainis
Lee Shainis specializes in making everyday communication clear, concise, and impactful, sharing immediately useful strategies that are often overlooked. Since founding Simplify Language in 2022, he has led more than 300 live trainings for government agencies, educational institutions, healthcare organizations, businesses, and nonprofits, with content shaped by lessons from the more than 10,000 people he has trained. His sessions are known for being fun, efficient, and surprisingly challenging, helping everyone from frontline staff to executive leadership communicate with greater clarity and trust.
Lee's expertise is grounded in two decades of leadership as co-founder and CEO of Intercambio Uniting Communities, a nonprofit that connected 10,000 adult immigrants with 5,000 volunteer teachers and scaled its model nationally. At Intercambio, he led hundreds of cultural humility trainings and authored The Immigrant Guide, a resource used by 300,000 people. He has delivered keynotes for organizations including the American Bar Association and the South Carolina Department of Education, and holds a BBA from the University of Michigan. Lee lives in Boulder, Colorado, with his family.
featuring...
Nilaja Montgomery
Nilaja Montgomery is a U.S. Army veteran, military spouse, and parent whose family navigates life with PTSD through therapy and community support. Based in Colorado Springs, she serves as President of the Board for Soul 2 Soul Sisters, co-runs Veterans' Digital Ally, and co-founded the Digital Ally Project to expand digital equity for veterans and the broader community. A 2021 Women of Influence Award recipient from the Colorado Springs Business Journal, Nilaja holds an MBA and a master's degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Adler University, and is a Licensed Professional Counseling Candidate in Colorado. She facilitates healing circles and community-driven healing while serving diverse populations through school-based and clinical therapy.
and Emily Tamayo
Emily Tamayo has called Colorado Springs home since 2001 and has built her career around connecting people with resources and creating opportunities where they've historically been denied. She currently serves as a Youth Program Specialist at RISE Southeast and as a School Board Director for Harrison School District 2. Originally from Hawai'i, her studies on Native Hawaiian land-back movements shaped her commitment to community-led change. Emily holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs and is guided by her life's motto: "Love courageously."
Reserve your seat today!