The Communities Rise staff and board invite you to wish our beloved Brianna (Bri) Jones, Co-Executive Director of Capacity Building, the best of luck as they start a new role as Co-Director of Alphabet Alliance of Color (AAoC). AAoC was a member of our 2022 Seattle Capacity Building Cohort and Bri has served on their Core Team/board since 2021. We couldn’t be more excited for them to continue to build their future together.
Bri started at Communities Rise as an intern in 2018, joined us full time as a Program Coordinator in 2019, became Director of Capacity Building in 2021, and was unanimously supported by our staff and board to take on a Co-Executive Director role in early 2023. In each of these roles, Bri has implemented new ideas, shared their wisdom, and committed deeply to relationship building. We’re so grateful to Bri for spending these formative years of their work life investing in the growth of Communities Rise. Our programs, our clients, and each one of our staff members are better for it.
Bri has been with us through our merger and transition to a Co-ED model and they’re leaving us with strategy and work plans in place so that we’re ready to welcome the next Co-Executive Director for Capacity Building who joins our team. While we will miss Bri and their presence at work every day, we see Bri’s transition to AAoC not as a loss, but as an extension of our mission that transcends organizational boundaries. We know that the next leader to join us will be coming to us from the incredible network of organizations we love and support, directly or from afar. There is no losing when we all work together.
If you or someone you know would make a great addition to our team, please give them the heads up that this opportunity is opening soon. Staff is focused now on 2025 program planning and our board is getting ready to recruit new members. (We’ll share more about that soon.) Bri will be with us through November and we’ll post their job description and details about our hiring process before the end of the year. The plan is to begin accepting applications in January 2025 – our hope is that anyone reading this or checking our website between now and January will share this opportunity with anyone interested in leading our capacity building work.
Sending love and gratitude to Bri on behalf of our team, especially our Capacity Building Team Ms. B, Khyree, and Silver, and the many, many organizations who have been touched by Bri’s contributions.