The Palmetto Leadership Academy: Learning the Art of Public Service
Stepping forward to represent your neighbors and community is both meaningful and rewarding, but it can also come with a healthy sense of uncertainty. Many aspiring board and commission members wonder whether they have the experience, knowledge, or tools needed to lead effectively. The responsibility can feel significant, especially when success brings new opportunities and greater expectations. Yet those challenges are often signs that you’re growing into a role where you can make a real difference.
You might look at someone like Lia Colabello, a Mount Pleasant resident who owns her own sustainability consulting practice, Planet+Purpose Solutions, and teaches at the College of Charleston, and assume that stepping into leadership has always come naturally to her. But even accomplished professionals can hesitate when considering positions of public service.
Lia serves on Mount Pleasant’s GREEN Commission and has grappled with feeling comfortable in that community leadership role. According to Lia, “I’m experienced in corporate boardrooms and working behind the scenes in public policy, but making a motion on the commission is not something I felt comfortable doing. I would watch other commissioners make motions effortlessly, but I always felt self-conscious since I was unfamiliar with all of the protocols.” This feeling inspired Lia to join CVSC Education Fund’s Palmetto Leadership Academy (PLA).
The PLA is a 9-month training program where South Carolinians gain the knowledge and tools to protect the environment and serve their communities on boards and commissions. Since graduating from the program in 2025, Lia shared that “The PLA has helped me feel more at ease in my role and capable of participating in civic work.”
On the GREEN Commission, Lia helps inform local decisions about conservation, natural resources, flood resilience, and green space. Those decisions help shape how Mount Pleasant grows and adapts to future challenges, ensuring that development is balanced with the protection of the natural assets that make the community unique. The commission’s work supports cleaner waterways, healthier ecosystems, expanded recreational opportunities, and more resilient infrastructure—benefits that extend beyond town boundaries to neighboring communities throughout the Lowcountry.
Reflecting on her time in the PLA, Lia remembers, “It was such a privilege to be surrounded by peers from across the state who are working just as hard, if not harder, to drive the change we need in our communities regarding conservation, sustainability, and resilience. I learned so much from hearing others talk about their successes and challenges, and how they keep stepping up again and again to fight for the changes they want to see.”
Many changemakers recognize the importance of boards and commissions in shaping South Carolina’s future at the local and statewide levels. Board members and commissioners are responsible for decisions on land use and zoning, transportation, infrastructure, energy and utility planning, natural resource management, community development, and more, all of which have major impacts on the well-being of our air, land, water, and communities. Yet across the state, these decision-making entities are in need of skilled, knowledgeable, and passionate public servants ready to serve and put our environment first.
The PLA is dedicated to building a pipeline of leaders ready to serve on public boards and commissions across the state by providing practical experience, including training, mentorship, and appointment support, so aspiring public servants have every tool to become leaders in their community. People just like Lia, who says, “Tori and the CVSC team recognize that knowledge is power. It’s obvious they’ve put a lot of care into creating a PLA program that both educates and motivates, with a valuable curriculum and highly experienced and insightful speakers.”
You can join a cohort of other up-and-coming community leaders by applying for the PLA before applications close on June 30, 2026. Visit cvsc.org/scpla/ to learn more and apply today!