Flinn-Brown Convention

Flinn-Brown Fellows at the 2019 annual convention

The Annual Convention

The annual Flinn-Brown Convention, which brings together Fellows dating back to the first Flinn-Brown cohort in 2011, is a place to make new connections and re-connect with Fellows while learning about state-level leadership and public service from policy experts and Fellows.

SAVE THE DATE: The 2024 Flinn-Brown Convention is scheduled for Friday, August 16.

The 2023 Flinn-Brown Convention, “Leading Arizona: Celebrating Public Service and Navigating Its Challenges,” was held Friday, Nov. 3 at the Helios Education Campus in Phoenix.

The 2022 Flinn-Brown Convention, “The State of Our Democracy,” was held Friday, Nov. 4 at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.

The 2021 Flinn-Brown Convention, with the theme “Media and the Message,” was held Nov. 12 at the Heard Museum in Phoenix.

Along with sessions led by Flinn-Brown Fellows and Arizona public-policy leaders, presenters have included national leaders in their fields such as Katherine M. Gehl, author of “The Politics Industry”; Kris Van Cleave, CBS News congressional correspondent; Manuel Pastor, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California and an author and expert on demographic change; Public Agenda President and CEO Will Friedman, a New York-based leader in research and innovation regarding public opinion and engagement; and choreographer and performer Liz Lerman, Institute Professor, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University.


Flinn-Brown Award Recipients

Five awards honoring high-impact leaders are granted each year at the Convention: Jack Jewett Award, Network Builder Award, and three Arizona Champion (Northern, Central and Southern Arizona) awards.

The individual winners of the Flinn-Brown Awards have made significant contributions to Arizona as state-government advisers, elected officials, agency executives, and policy experts—and have played important roles in strengthening their communities and the Flinn-Brown Network.

Past winners include:

2023 Flinn-Brown Award Recipients

2022 Flinn-Brown Award Recipients


Learn more about the Flinn-Brown Fellows

Across Arizona, there are more than 435 Flinn-Brown Fellows in the Flinn-Brown Network, many in state-level leadership roles, with wide-ranging expertise and experience.

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