The Arizona Center for Civic Leadership at the Flinn Foundation has selected 28 civic leaders from around the state as the 2024 Flinn-Brown Fellows and among them is Florence Mayor Tara Walter.

“With over 20 years of experience in education, Tara also serves as an assistant principal, leveraging her expertise to ensure the success of students. Her deep commitment to the community is demonstrated through her active involvement in various boards and committees, including the Arizona Mayor’s Educational Roundtable, Pinal Regional Partnership: First Things First Board, and Local Emergency Planning Committee. Tara’s unwavering passion for serving her community shines through in every endeavor she undertakes,” a press release from the Flinn Foundation stated.

Along with being mayor of Florence, Walter is also an assistant principal at Copper Basin K-8 in the Florence Unified School District.

Walter has served as mayor for almost eight years. She was first elected in 2016 and reelected in 2020. She is not running for reelection and is instead running for Pinal County school chief. She’s challenging incumbent Jill Broussard who has held the position for almost 12 years.

The Flinn Foundation launched the Arizona Center for Civic Leadership in 2011 to develop a statewide network of civic leaders seeking solutions for the state’s long-term issues. The network now includes 465 fellows from rural, urban and tribal communities.

“The leaders we have selected for Flinn-Brown this year are playing important roles in areas that must be successful and collaborative for the future health and prosperity of Arizona — health care, entrepreneurship, public health, K-12 education, business, nonprofits, our universities and government, to name a few,” stated Tammy McLeod, Flinn Foundation president and CEO, in the release. “We believe these 28 Arizonans will emerge from the Flinn-Brown Fellowship even more knowledgeable about the inner workings of Arizona and with the skills and dedication needed to advance our state.”

The Flinn Foundation is a privately endowed, philanthropic grantmaking organization established in 1965 by Robert S. and Irene P. Flinn. Its mission is to improve the quality of life in Arizona to benefit future generations.

The 2024 fellows will participate in the fall Flinn-Brown Academy, an public policy institute. The session begins with the Aug. 16 Flinn-Brown Convention.

All 465 Flinn-Brown Fellows are invited to “Collaboration: A Network That Invokes Change,” a full-day professional-development and networking opportunity in downtown Phoenix.