Lightbulb Speaker Series: Resilience in Community

Name: Lightbulb Speaker Series: Resilience in Community
Start: 2026-03-11T17:30:00-04:00
End: 2026-03-11T19:00:00-04:00
Location: Collaboratory

March 11 from 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Free

What does resilience look like in communities facing constant change—and how do leaders help
cultivate it? This panel brings together visionaries from business, culture, science, and nonprofit
leadership to explore how resilience is built, sustained, and strengthened across diverse communities.

Moderated by Dr. Dawn Belamarich, President & CEO of Collaboratory, the conversation will feature insights
from Benjamin Gulak, Founder and CEO of NALA; Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues
Baseball Museum; and Marco Munoz, Executive Director for Strategic Initiatives at the Ragon
Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard. Drawing from their unique perspectives and lived
experiences, panelists will discuss leadership, innovation, cultural legacy, and collaboration as essential tools for fostering resilient, thriving communities.

Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of how cross-sector partnerships and
community-driven approaches can help communities not only withstand challenges, but emerge
stronger and more connected.

Doors open at 5 pm.

Details

Date:: March 11
Time:: 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
Cost:: Free

Venue

: Collaboratory
: 2031 Jackson St.
Fort Myers, FL 33901 United States + Google Map
Phone: 239-274-5900

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Since no single organization can solve big social problems alone, Collaboratory is using its community leadership role to bring together local organizations and people from different sectors (like businesses, nonprofits, and government) to work on common goals. This collaboration aims to improve Southwest Florida and make it a better place to live, work, learn, and play.

The impact dashboard shows key regional goals that everyone is working toward, with the aim of solving social issues by 2040. It provides a point-in-time snapshot of progress by tracking important indicators that show how the community is changing over time. While these changes take time and there is often a delay between when the data is collected and becomes available, the dashboard helps us understand where we need to focus our efforts to achieve our shared goals.

In 2022, in concert with hundreds of individuals and organizations, we collectively identified the issues of housing and health as the next most-pressing areas of need. Based on that data, we’ve modeled FutureMakers Coalition, our nine-year initiative, to establish two new regional coalitions: Home and Health & Wellness.

If you would like to dive deeper into each of the coalitions, visit each coalition website.