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In Celebration of the Shared Leadership Model
As we prepare to celebrate 40 years of advocating for family farmers and healthy food systems, we are pleased to announce the successful conclusion of the shared leadership model with our sister organization and coalition member, North American Marine Alliance (NAMA). Our Board of Directors will now begin the search for the next Executive Director for our farmer-, rancher-, and fisher-led coalition.
The shared leadership model emerged as a bold endeavor to continue and strengthen our work while honoring the legacy of our coalition's longtime Executive Director, Kathy Ozer, who passed away in 2017. That sudden change required a nimble approach to leadership that would allow us to once again find our footing as one of the most powerful voices for family farmers in Washington, DC.
“The seeds for a shared leadership concept were planted by two close allies of NFFC – Carolyn Mugar of Farm Aid and Pat Sweeney of Western Organization of Resource Councils – while we were in the midst of a transition planning process,” says Jim Goodman, NFFC board co-president. “It quickly became clear to us that with the right person at the helm, the concept can strengthen both organizations without undermining the ability of either to do its unique strategies toward realizing its mission. The right person for us was Niaz Dorry, who was serving NAMA at the time.”
Adopted in May 2018, the shared leadership model created conditions for both organizations to grow and thrive. Organizational and strategic gains in service to NFFC members have accrued dramatically over the past eight years under Niaz's leadership, who served as both Executive Director for NFFC and Coordinating Director for NAMA. The shared leadership model strengthened solidarity between farmer, rancher, and fisher-led efforts to build collective power towards a just food system. Under the model, NFFC and NAMA remained separate legal entities and maintained their own missions, values, strategic plans, and boards of directors. As sister organizations, they shared Dorry’s leadership as well as key support staff for finance, development, human resources, and logistics.
At our annual members gathering in July, our coalition unanimously decided to support the phase-out of the shared-leadership model, recognizing that it had not only accomplished its original mission, but had also exceeded expectations by achieving extraordinary growth and renewed vision for the coalition.
“Having successfully navigated the potentially vulnerable times for NFFC, Niaz stabilized and then grew the resources and impact for the NFFC community,” says Tiffany Bellfield El-Amin of Kentucky Black Farmers Association and NFFC’s board co-president. “Knowing that both organizations were in a strong position, Niaz, NAMA and NFFC leadership recognized that the goals for the shared leadership model had been met. We are grateful to Niaz for her leadership over the past 8 years and are comforted by knowing that she is not going far, since NAMA is a member of NFFC.”
NFFC enters this next chapter ready to meet today’s challenges. Informed, inspired, and emboldened by its 30 member organizations, NFFC represents hundreds of thousands of farmers, ranchers, and fishermen from every corner of the country.
“I am honored and humbled to have served the two organizations over the past eight years,” says Niaz, who will continue to lead NAMA once a new Executive Director for NFFC has been found. “I’m proud of all we have accomplished for both organizations and am committed to making sure NFFC’s next Executive Director is well positioned to take the coalition into the future.”
To take NFFC to its next phase and to build on the successes of the shared leadership model and the legacy of the coalition’s early organizers, activists and farmers, our Board of Directors has set out to find the coalition's next Executive Director. A position profile will be posted to NFFC’s website in early November.
“We look forward to building on 40 years of resilience and strength with our next Executive Director in place,” adds Tiffany. “Together, our work to uphold our values of food sovereignty, self-determination, justice, and equity while fighting against corporate consolidation across our food system continues.”
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