Three Lawrence residents have been selected to be in the 2010 Class of Advocacy Fellows for the Sunflower Foundation: Health Care for Kansans.

They are Brutrinia Arellano, fellow to the Kansas University School of Law’s Family Health Care Legal Services Clinic; Dr. Dee Ann DeRoin, a Lawrence family practitioner, and Doug Vance, executive director of the Kansas Recreation and Park Association.

They are among 15 nonprofit leaders from across the state who will learn how to become effective public policy advocates for their organizations and the people they serve.

The Advocacy Fellowship class is part of the foundation’s non-partisan advocacy initiative, which is designed to provide education and training opportunities for nonprofit leaders. The goal is to bring the perspective of the nonprofit world to public policy.

The fellowship program includes six sessions during the course of a year, including one visit to Washington, D.C. Topics include how to develop advocacy strategies, build coalitions and grassroots efforts, navigate the political process and work with the media.

In conjunction with the fellowship program, the Sunflower Foundation also will be sponsoring its Advocacy in Health Speaker Series, which brings four national leaders to the state for public forums. All forums are free and open to the public.

The first speaker will be Marcia Avner, a nationally-recognized author and nonprofit advocacy expert. She will speak at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Topeka.

The Sunflower Foundation is a charitable organization with a mission to serve as a catalyst for improving the health of Kansans.