When you get to know the Tri-Cities’ up-and-coming leaders, it’s easy to feel like the community’s future is in good hands.

This year marks our 17th annual Young Professionals contest, and we’re pleased to introduce you to the 10 winners who are excelling in their careers and working to better our community.

Since 2008, we’ve been reviewing applications from the Tri-Cities’ brightest young leaders.

They are all 40 or younger and their resumes are impressive. Each clearly loves our community, as they have stepped up in a variety of ways to make it a better place and they have terrific ideas to keep those improvements coming.

Applicants were nominated by others or were able to self-nominate. This year, we received a record number of applications. Our panel of newsroom judges scored the applications in several categories and tallied the points to select the Young Professionals Class of 2024.

Please meet this year’s winners:

• Raul Contreras, assistant director, Tri-Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
• Kristy Leitze, director of Therapy Services and Wound Care, Trios Health.
• Josh Lozano, senior government and external affairs specialist, Energy Northwest.
• Melissa McCoy, principal architect and owner, CKJT Architects.
• Nicholas Mercer, wealth advisor, Piton Wealth.
• Ryan Nell, geochemist, INTERA Inc.
• Jaylicia-Jinei “Kanani” Patricio-Young, technical integrations industrial hygiene supervisor, Washington River Protection Solutions, or WRPS.
• Austin Regimbal, marketing and communications director, Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce.
• Melissa Torres, director of fire systems maintenance, Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, or HMIS.
• Sonee Kulaga Wilson, mission services opportunity specialist, Goodwill Industries of the Columbia.

We will celebrate this year’s honorees at our first-ever awards event, scheduled from 4-6 p.m. May 15 at J. Bookwalter Winery, 894 Tulip Lane, Richland.

To those we singled out in this issue, to those who took part in the contest, and to those chosen in years past, we applaud you and your work.

We trust our readers will find inspiration in this year’s Young Professionals as we believe they will leave a lasting impression.