Dear friends of SPOON,
I am excited to share that just this week I have officially passed the baton over to Carolyn Miles, who is succeeding me as SPOON’s Board Chair. This transition was planned a few years ago and I’m glad for the opportunity here to share more about that and about Carolyn, as well as what is next for me at SPOON. Spoiler alert: I am not going anywhere :).
Carolyn Miles, incoming Board Chair
You may remember that I had the privilege of serving as SPOON’s Executive Director for the first eight years of our organization’s history. When my co-founder, Mishelle Rudzinski, replaced me in that role, I rotated over to chair the board. It has been an amazing experience, both personally and professionally, and I have been in no hurry to leave it. However, two years ago when approaching our 15th anniversary, our board recognized the risk of remaining founder-led. In keeping with best practices, we began planning a transition to non-founder leadership, beginning with the Board Chair role. This decision was made easier when Carolyn Miles, a longtime leader in the international nonprofit sector, agreed to succeed me. We truly could not dream up a more capable or qualified candidate, especially during such unprecedented times in the international development & humanitarian sector.
Carolyn has held numerous leadership positions, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to academia to nonprofits. She spent over two decades at Save the Children US, the world’s largest INGO exclusively serving children, the last ten years of which she served as CEO. She has spent much of her adulthood living and traveling the globe, with almost 100 countries on her passport. She has seen the need we address up close, meeting so many children on her journeys who have been denied basic nutrition and care. Carolyn is deeply connected and respected in the sector, and is well-positioned to help SPOON navigate the changing world in which we operate. On a personal level, she is a mother to three children, two biological and one adopted from Vietnam. She has served on SPOON’s board for two years and was unanimously voted into the Chair role by SPOON’s board. In addition to her service to SPOON, Carolyn continues to be connected to Save the Children through their women’s philanthropy and mentoring network and select other nonprofits, and to teach courses at Darden School of Business. Despite this impressive resume, Carolyn enters this role with humility and has carved out a generous amount of time to travel to meet many of our supporters. Mishelle and I hope to introduce her to you soon – if not in person, then at an online gathering this fall.
While the board is clearly in good hands, I am not hanging up my spoon just yet! Carolyn has asked me to remain active on the board and on the Executive Committee, ensuring a smooth transition. I will also Chair the Nominations & Governance committee this next year with a focus on cultivating more resources, expert leadership, and diverse representation at SPOON. And I will forever and always remain a passionate ambassador and advocate for SPOON and the children we serve. In addition to raising my own children (one of whom is now technically an adult), SPOON is my purpose on this planet and I will invest my time and energy here as long as it can help support the life-changing work of our team.
Onward!
Cindy
