09/02/2026
Big news: We have a new Executive Director! 🙌
To celebrate, we're EXTENDING the deadline to apply for this year's ENGL cohort. If you thought you missed your window, take this as a sign: you are meant to join us! 🫶
Get your application in by September 15: https://bit.ly/4us6CZj
In the meantime, please help us give a warm welcome to Tena Hahn: Omaha native, community builder, strategist, facilitator, and longtime advocate for creating spaces where people—especially those too often left out of decision-making—can lead, belong, and thrive.
For more than 25 years, Tena has worked across nonprofit leadership, community organizing, entrepreneurship, and advocacy. Most recently, she served as Co-Managing Executive Director of Black & Pink National, where she helped lead a national organization through strategic change, fundraising, and program development.
Throughout her career, Tena has been committed to building stronger communities by connecting people,
developing leaders, and turning ideas into action. She is especially excited to bring that experience home to Elevate Omaha.
Tena believes young people are not simply the leaders of tomorrow—they are leaders right now. They deserve more than a seat at the table; they deserve meaningful power in shaping the decisions that affect their lives and communities. Our focus on youth voice, civic engagement, leadership development, and creating pathways for young people to influence institutions deeply reflects how Tena understands lasting community change.
As an Omaha native, this work is deeply personal to Tena. She has spent her life watching her hometown grow and change, and she believes our city's future is strongest when young people have the opportunity, resources, and trust to help shape it.
For Tena, leadership is ultimately about creating the conditions for other people to recognize their own power—and then making sure they have the opportunity to use it. ❤️
