CEO of Cincinnati-based Leadership Consulting Firm and Founder of Suicide Prevention Nonprofit Wins Prestigious Award for Outstanding Community Contributions

Diane Egbers has been chosen as the 2022 Kent Clapp CEO Leadership Award winner.

CINCINNATI – February 9, 2022 – Leadership Excelleration is thrilled to announce that its founder and CEO, Diane Egbers, has been selected as the winner of the 2022 Kent Clapp CEO Leadership Award, the top honor among the prestigious Medical Mutual Pillar Awards for Community Service presented by Smart Business Magazine.

Diane was chosen for her exceptional service and commitment to the community through both her for-profit and nonprofit work. She was honored at a virtual event ceremony held this morning. She is one of 19 local leaders also recognized today as 2022 Pillar Award recipients.

The Pillar Awards program honors leaders from businesses of all types and sizes that make outstanding contributions to their communities. Founded in 1998, its purpose is to encourage a charitable environment and recognize creative efforts that make a difference, while demonstrating the ties between the for-profit and nonprofit worlds.

In addition to serving and developing the region’s top business leaders and her team at Leadership Excelleration for the past 25 years, Diane also founded and serves as board chair of the nonprofit, Grant Us Hope, focused on teen suicide prevention. She founded Grant Us Hope in 2016 after losing her 15-year-old son, Grant, to suicide in 2015. She has since been on a mission to change the stigma around teen mental health and works tirelessly to equip parents and communities with tools to change school cultures and prevent teen suicide.

Over the last 5 years, Grant Us Hope has been implementing a peer-to-peer suicide prevention program called Hope Squads into 145 schools across Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, training 45,000 people and serving 400,000 students, and counting. Hope Squad students are trained to watch for warning signs in their peers in distress and refer them to trusted adults who can help.

“I am so humbled and honored to be recognized among such a distinguished group of business and nonprofit leaders,” Diane said. “I dedicate this award to the extraordinary teams at both Leadership Excelleration and Grant Us Hope, and to the incredible Hope Squad students across the region who inspire me every day. My hope is that this recognition will help pave the way for other leaders to turn their passion into action in service to our community, and to use their influence to make an impact for the greater good.”

Thanks to Diane’s leadership and commitment, Grant Us Hope’s method is becoming a national benchmark for preventing teen suicide, while combating and addressing related issues that can lead to suicide. Diane is also in the process of writing a book for parents, containing lessons learned and a how-to guide for navigating helping a child through a mental health crisis. She is also author of the book, The Ascending Leader.

Servant leadership is at the heart of how Diane leads, and it’s truly who she is.

“Diane demonstrates a passion for making a real impact on helping teens who are struggling,” says Dustin S. Klein, publisher and chief content officer of Smart Business. “She has taken her personal connection to this issue, based in tragedy, and developed an outlet for those in need. When we created the Kent Clapp CEO Leadership Award several years ago, it was this type of servant leadership that we were hoping to shine a spotlight on each year. Diane certainly represents everything this award—and the overall Pillar Award for Community Service program—is about.”

Diane specializes in nurturing the development and growth of both business leaders and communities – helping others realize their potential to grow more, do more, and be more.

Learn more about Leadership Excelleration at lei-consulting.com.

Learn more about Grant Us Hope and how to get involved in the cause at grantushope.org.