This is my first fall at MRG, that wonderful season of change! Here at MRG we’re changing some staff roles as we move our social justice work forward into 2012.

Anita Rodgers became our interim associate director this summer to support the executive director transition, and she has accepted the position of associate director for the long term. She’ll focus on MRG’s internal ‘care and feeding,’ giving me more flexibility to engage with the many communities we’re connected to, and to focus on building support for social justice grantmaking in Oregon.

Meanwhile, Cris Lira has taken on a new role as the grants manager. Anita will stay connected to MRG’s grantmaking (her love and the focus of many years of work here) as Cris takes on more responsibilities for managing our application process and current grants. She’ll be the person you talk to about applying for a grant (and don’t forget, our next grant cycle begins in late December!).

And I’m sad to say that Kathleen Pequeño will be leaving her role as communications director at the end of this year. She is leaving us for the best reason — LOVE — to settle down with her new partner in Brooklyn, NY. Over 15 years with MRG, she has served as a grantmaker, staff, consultant and donor. Over the last two and a half years, Kathleen has led us in improving our web presence and print materials, including forays into video, blogging and social media, helping MRG to reach thousands more people. She’s also worked with MRG grantees to build their communications capacity through the MIC Project (which is the source of all those great posts on communications for social justice that you can find on our website).

Kathleen has assured me that she’ll find ways to continue to support our grantees, even from afar. And MRG as well — she’ll be continuing to provide transitional communications support to MRG and a small number of grantees through summer 2012.

I’m not looking forward to saying goodbye to Kathleen, but I am looking forward to starting the new year here, and all that we’re going to do together to support grassroots social justice organizing across our wonderful state. If you have any questions about who is doing what here, check out our staff page, feel free to give us a call, or use the links to get in touch. We’re here to serve our Oregon social justice community, and we enjoy hearing from you!