Alanna Wilson is a competitive high school cheerleading coach and a program officer for Stand Together Trust, a philanthropy that supports social entrepreneurs. Coaching is about more than just telling athletes what to do, she says. You have to listen to them, encourage them and develop a way forward together. That coaching philosophy has helped her cheer team win its district competition four times and its state competition twice. Last year, it won the national event for the first time.
Alanna applies this approach to her role with Stand Together Trust. An early-career internship with Sen. Bob Casey convinced her she could make a difference in policy. She went on to do that as an aide in the Pennsylvania Legislature before moving to the Knee Regulatory Research Center, focusing on licensing laws that create barriers to employment. In her leadership position at the Knee Center, Alanna learned about Stand Together Trust and its vision for a society where every person can realize his or her potential. She joined the team as a state program officer in 2023 and now serves as the Mackinac Center’s primary point of contact.
She’s constantly communicating with other cheer coaches and does the same with grant recipients. “They share their problems, I connect them with other organizations doing great work, and we create sustainable solutions together,” Alanna says. Stand Together Trust helps thousands of partner organizations apply a “bottom-up approach to policy change, empowering people to bridge divides and tackle our country’s biggest challenges in the economy, education, health care and communities.”
Alanna finds creating sustainable change rewarding. “I love giving someone the confidence and guidance needed to be the checks and balances of their own life,” she says. At the same time, it’s challenging to work with partners in 50 different states because every state is unique and grant resources are finite. “That’s when strong coalitions come in. All of us are truly in this together.”
Stand Together Trust has supported the Center since 2005. “The Mackinac Center has positioned itself as a leader in so many ways,” Alanna says. “I’m really excited to see what big moves in labor policy we can accomplish together and what other policy areas we can lift up to that same level.”
