Leaders Who Push for Change And Reach Out Are Applauded

But that's exactly the point, said Corbett, an urban planner who helped create the Cultural Development Corp. Her role is to be a deal broker and matchmaker for arts development projects in the District.

Founded 10 years ago this week amid a downtown development boom, Corbett's group has helped build affordable housing for artists and steer the renovations of numerous performing arts spaces, including the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE and the Tivoli Theatre in Columbia Heights.

More recently, Corbett led the campaign to save the Source Theatre Co. on 14th Street NW from being sold and redeveloped into a restaurant and instead renovate it to the tune of $3.5 million.

"We make space for art," Corbett said. "We do that physically, in developing venues and facilities, but we also do that ethereally in that we're trying to create that nurturing environment."

Steve Galen

President and chief executive,

Primary Care Coalition of Montgomery County

A fter 26 years as a hospital manager at the Bethesda-based National Institutes of Health, Galen, 63, knew something that not everyone did: Montgomery County, one of the nation's most affluent suburban jurisdictions, was home to tens of thousands of families without health insurance.

"If you think about it, it actually becomes fairly obvious: [It's] the people who do the part-time jobs, the day care, driving the buses," Galen said.

So when he retired from NIH, Galen took charge of the fledgling Primary Care Coalition, which highlights the plight of approximately 80,000 uninsured Montgomery residents. In his seven years as executive director, the coalition's budget grew from $500,000 to $13 million.

Galen has helped steer millions more private and public dollars. In 2000, there were just four clinics in Montgomery serving 2,000 uninsured patients. Now, there are 10 clinics serving about 20,000 uninsured patients.

"Montgomery County is a very good community to respond to articulated needs," Galen said. "It's thrilling that 20,000 people have access to health care, and we're going to drive that up to 40,000 or more."

Veronica Nolan

Executive director, Urban Alliance

N olan, 33, happened upon a career in education as a senior at University of Virginia, when she saw a flier advertising jobs with Teach for America. Placed at Eastern High School in Northeast Washington in 1998, Nolan fell in love with the job.

"I was always the crazy teacher that changed conjugational verbs into rap music and used games to prepare for tests," Nolan said. "I would stand on my head if I thought it would make a student learn."

But during the school system's budget shortfall four years later, Nolan was let go. To stay connected to the students, whom she said she "felt in my DNA," Nolan took a job at Urban Alliance, which helps underperforming students prepare for college and careers through paid internships and mentoring opportunities.

Within a year, Nolan was named executive director. She has expanded the program from one high school to 16 schools, placing more than 500 D.C. youths each year at such institutions as the World Bank and Morgan Stanley. Almost all graduate from high school, she said, and 90 percent enroll in college.

"Students who never would've had this opportunity, most of whom live across the [Anacostia] River, work in professional settings," Nolan said.