Episode 67: How Leadership St. Pete Is Building the City’s Next Generation of Leaders | Jenna Stock Wunsch
What happens when you bring together 40 people from completely different careers, backgrounds, and parts of St. Pete and ask them to become better leaders together?
For Jenna Stock Wunsch, the answer goes far beyond leadership training.
In Episode 67 of Talkin’ St. Pete, Ryan Bogden sits down with Jenna, the 2025 Leadership Chair for Leadership St. Pete, to talk about one of the longest running leadership programs of its kind in the country, why she joined, what happens during the six month experience, and why the relationships built through LSP can last long after graduation.
What Is Leadership St. Pete?
Leadership St. Pete, commonly known as LSP, is a program of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce. At the time of this conversation, the organization was preparing to celebrate its 55th year.
Each class brings together roughly 35 to 40 people from across the St. Pete community for a six month leadership experience.
And it isn't limited to executives.
Jenna explains that classes can include entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, attorneys, architects, doctors, Realtors, corporate professionals, and people at different stages of their careers.
What connects them is a desire to become stronger leaders while understanding the community around them on a deeper level.
Six Months of Leadership, St. Pete, and Real Community Work
The LSP experience is built around three major components: leadership development, educational seminars, and a community project.
Leadership training includes work with Eckerd College's Leadership Development Institute, where participants learn more about their own leadership and communication styles and how to work with people who may approach problems very differently.
The educational side takes participants deeper into St. Pete itself.
During Jenna's discussion with Ryan, she describes seminars covering St. Pete history and culture, local and state government, environmental sustainability, and the city's continued growth.
But participants don't just sit in a room and listen.
They're involved in planning parts of the experience themselves, choosing speakers and helping determine what their classmates should learn.
Then comes one of the biggest parts of LSP: the community project.
Leadership That Actually Leaves Something Behind
Each class selects a local nonprofit and works together on a capital improvement project.
That means participants aren't only talking about leadership. They're responsible for putting it into practice.
They work on fundraising, marketing, event planning, construction, design, partnerships, and everything needed to bring the project together.
Jenna's class worked with WestCare's Mustard Seed, a transitional housing program. Their project improved shared spaces, created a computer room with donated computers to help residents apply for jobs, and upgraded outdoor areas.
She also shares the example of the St. Pete Youth Farm, which became the beneficiary of a later LSP class project.
The class generally works toward raising at least $50,000 for its project. Jenna even recalls her class raising around $150,000.
It's a real project with real deadlines, disagreements, responsibilities, and decisions.
In other words, it's leadership outside of a classroom.
The Part Jenna Didn't Expect
Jenna originally moved to St. Pete from Minnesota in 2011.
Years later, after being heavily involved in a public relations and communications association and then stepping away from outside commitments, COVID changed things.
She found herself wanting connection again.
Because she lived and worked in St. Pete, she looked for a leadership program centered on the city and found LSP.
She joined the Class of 2021 without completely knowing what she was getting into.
What surprised her most wasn't necessarily a seminar or leadership exercise.
It was the people.
Her class brought together 40 individuals who may never have crossed paths otherwise. Years later, Jenna said they were still getting together, meeting for lunch, supporting one another, and staying connected.
For someone who wasn't originally from St. Pete, LSP also helped her understand the history and people behind the city she had already called home for years.
Why Different Types of Leaders Matter
One exercise Jenna remembers asked participants to think about the five people closest to them.
Do they work in the same industry? Do they have similar backgrounds? Do they think like you?
It's easy to surround ourselves with people who already see the world the way we do.
LSP intentionally disrupts that.
Put an entrepreneur, attorney, architect, nonprofit leader, corporate professional, and community advocate in the same room and they're probably not going to solve every problem the same way.
That's the point.
Participants learn how they personally lead, but they also learn how to communicate with people who operate differently.
For Jenna, those differences are part of what makes the experience valuable.
From Participant to Leadership Chair
When Jenna completed the program, she didn't immediately picture herself eventually leading it.
She joined the LSP planning committee after graduation and stayed involved. Then one of her mentors, Mike Brassa, encouraged her to consider becoming chair.
Jenna admits there was some imposter syndrome.
How do you lead a room filled with people who may have more experience, know more about St. Pete, or have completely different areas of expertise?
Eventually, she realized she didn't have to know everything.
One of her strengths was connecting people.
Her professional career in corporate communications at Raymond James had already taught her the importance of relationships and clear communication. LSP gave her another place to put those skills to work.
Sometimes leadership isn't being the person with every answer.
It's knowing how to bring the right people together.
Building Leaders as St. Pete Keeps Changing
Throughout the conversation, Ryan and Jenna keep coming back to something bigger than the program itself: community.
St. Pete has grown significantly since Jenna arrived in 2011. With that growth come questions about infrastructure, sustainability, local businesses, development, and how the city holds onto the community that makes people want to live here in the first place.
Leadership St. Pete gives people an opportunity to understand those issues instead of simply watching them happen.
But Jenna's biggest takeaway is still the relationships.
You come into LSP to become a better leader.
You may leave knowing more about government, history, sustainability, communication, and your own leadership style.
But you also leave knowing more of the people who are helping shape St. Pete alongside you.
And for a city changing as quickly as St. Petersburg, those relationships could be one of the most important parts.
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