Brent Bates honored to be selected for the Class of 2026 Boettcher Foundation Doers & Difference Makers Fellowship

Brent Bates at the recent Southeast Colorado Cancer Initiative’s (SECCI) Inaugural Drive Fore Hope Golf Tournament, held at Spreading Antlers Golf Course

The Boettcher Foundation’s Class of 2026 Doers & Difference Makers Fellowship was recently announced and Lamar’s own Brent Bates is one of only 15 young professionals in Colorado to be selected. He is also the first young professional from Prowers County to earn this honor. Chosen from a field of over 100 final applicants, Brent and the other 14 Fellows will begin a nine-month journey towards building on their leadership skills.

The Boettcher Foundation defines leadership as “mobilizing others to do the difficult work of transforming Colorado communities for the better”. The nine months spent in the program will include more than 60 hours of in-person and virtual learning sessions led by a diverse group of educators. Each Fellow is also assigned a certified, professional coach who guides them through the program and for several months thereafter. While most of the coaching is done virtually due to the Fellows being from various parts of the state, the program also will include three in-person retreats, the first of which will be mid-September in Denver.

Brent learned that he had been nominated through an email he received in early May. He was nominated by Julie Worley of La Junta, whom he met at the Rural Startup Days Conference in late February and has continued to network with since, including through a planned Young Leadership Workshop they are collaborating on. Julie has worked for more than 20 years as a rural economic development director and consultant and has directed and hosted the successful Southeast Colorado Youth Entrepreneurship Project since 2016. After learning of his nomination, Brent went through the Fellowship application process, which included submitting his resume and professional references, followed by an extensive interview process.

“I’m not exactly sure where my path in leadership is headed,” said Bates, “but I’m excited to learn from some of the best leaders in the state and experience the diverse perspectives the Fellowship will bring.”

He admits that he is a “Type A personality” and often takes on too much. Through the program, he hopes to strengthen his delegation skills and become a better “systems builder,” ultimately helping him more effectively manage the many responsibilities on his plate. As Brent puts it, “I want to build systems of leadership that outlast my time on this Earth.”

Brent has been extremely active in his community since returning to Lamar in June 2021. He not only serves as the Project Manager for Prowers Economic Development (developing and spearheading the county’s Shovel Ready project), but also serves on the Lamar City Council as both a council member for Ward 1 and as Mayor Pro Tem. As a Council member, Brent shows his engagement in his community at each and every meeting, asking the sometimes-tough questions on issues to ensure he votes in the best interest of his constituents. He is Vice President of the Spreading Antlers Golf Club and is very active in planning and organizing golf tournaments for various charity events. He also serves as President of the Southeast Colorado Cancer Initiative and founded the Pat Bates Memorial Foundation in honor of his mother, Patricia.

Brent Bates busy with setting up the SECCI’s 3rd Annual Fight Night Social which was held at the Prowers County Fairground

Brent is very cognizant of the need to be a role model for his generation—one he admits does not always share the same sense of community engagement or responsibility to serve others.   He said this desire to serve others was much more commonplace with his parents’ generation and credits his mom and dad for instilling the same drive in him.  “My generation is more geared toward the ‘American Dream’ and tends to focus more on themselves than on their community as a whole, which can create a negative snowball effect,” he said. Speaking about the many roles he has taken on, Bates said, “Those experiences continue to shape how I approach leadership—with urgency, humility, persistence, and a deep belief in showing up for the people and places that raised me.” Brent’s work is rooted in a simple belief that rural communities cannot wait for opportunity to arrive. Instead, he believes “we can build it ourselves through preparation, collaboration, strong relationships, and the willingness to do the unglamorous work that moves our communities forward.”

By: Barbara Crimond