Five years ago, I stepped into leadership at Southern Vision Alliance at a moment of possibility. Today, I am stepping away at another moment of possibility.
After a season of reflection and discernment—including a sabbatical that gave me space to think carefully about what comes next for me and for SVA—I have decided that it is time to pass the torch.
This is a difficult message to write, because SVA has been such a meaningful part of my life. But I leave with tremendous pride in what we built together, and with deep gratitude for the people who made it possible.
The Southern Vision Alliance I’m leaving is not the organization I helped found as a board member, or even the one I walked into five years ago as the Executive Director. When I started in this role, SVA had 13 sponsored projects and roughly $2 million in annual revenue. Today, we support more than 40 projects and have grown to roughly $28 million in annual revenue, making SVA the largest grassroots intermediary in the U.S. South. Our staff has grown to 30 people, led by a majority Black executive team, and we have re-granted more than $1 million directly to organizations doing the work on the ground.
We secured a transformative $3 million gift from MacKenzie Scott. We brought financial management in-house. We increased staff salaries by at least 36 percent. And we established operating principles around solvency, strategic authority, sponsored project protection, and operational flexibility that will help guide SVA for years to come.
We also built and brought people together. We opened the People’s Solidarity Hub and expanded into two community spaces that have been rented more than 2,500 times since opening in 2023. We hosted the Southern Summit that gathered 500 people from across the South and carried the story of Southern movement work to an international audience.
But numbers and milestones only tell part of the story.
The work was always about building something that could outlast any one person. I viewed my job as building toward a future for people whose faces I may never see. SVA was built for the South’s next generation of organizers, leaders, and movements—not for me.
And that is why I can step away with confidence that the work will continue. SVA’s sponsored projects will continue their work, and SVA will continue its work of housing, resourcing, and protecting grassroots and movement organizations. The infrastructure we have built and the relationships we have cultivated will continue to serve that purpose. I am proud of that, and I am grateful to everyone who makes it possible.
I want to say a special thank you to our executive team: Toia, Bridgette, LeiLani, and Wesley. Thank you for your leadership, your partnership, your care for this organization, and the countless ways you have carried SVA through moments of challenge and growth. I have learned from each of you, and I know SVA is stronger because of what you have built together.
And to everyone on staff: thank you. Thank you for trusting me to lead, for showing up for one another, and for doing the work that makes SVA what it is. I know growth has not always been easy, and I know the work has asked a lot of you. I hope you know how much I respect what you have accomplished and how deeply I care about this team.
As for me, North Carolina is not a state I landed in. It is the state that made me. That is why leaving SVA does not mean leaving the work, or leaving North Carolina.
As my sabbatical continues to unfold, I am allowing the next chapter to take shape. I will continue my work in movement building, I’ll continue writing, and I’ll continue to stay rooted in the South and in the work. But I am not in a hurry to define what comes next.
What I know is this: North Carolina will be at the center of it.
I believe deeply in this state and in its future. I believe in what is possible when people have the resources, infrastructure, imagination, and power to shape that future themselves. And I intend to be part of building it.
It has been an honor to serve alongside you. I am proud of what we built. I am grateful for what it taught me. And I am excited to pass the torch and see what the next generation builds from here.
With love and gratitude,
