Message from Laura Vaudreuil, Co-Executive Director:
July 7, 2021 - To all RIT friends and supporters, we are immensely grateful for your ongoing partnership and support, especially given the extraordinary challenges of this past year. I’ve had the honor of serving as RIT’s Executive Director for the last 18+ years, and feel extremely grateful to work with a team committed to welcoming and partnering with those who have sought refuge, employing strengths-based educational approaches and community supports so they may thrive in our shared communities. This past year has emphasized the importance of this mission and the need to invest in collaborative models that serve the collective community.
I am thus thrilled to share that Jane Pak, who has been a part of RIT’s staff and board for 9 years, will be transitioning from her current role as Board Chair to join me in our new roles as Co-Executive Directors!
Jane returns to our staff team after receiving a doctorate in International & Multicultural Education/Human Rights Education (with a Critical Refugee Studies lens) from the University of San Francisco (USF). In addition to her lived experiences as a child of parents who fled a country (North Korea) when young, her scholarship is informed by her ongoing work as an adjunct professor in the Master in Migration Studies program at USF.
I am excited to continue leading RIT’s education, family engagement and community leadership programming. Jane will grow our community research efforts to inform our community education and solidarity work around refugee and migrant issues. For us, community research means listening deeply to and learning from people with lived experiences related to migration, and ensuring that this learning informs all our work at RIT. As author, adrienne maree brown says: "Those in the center are those whose lead we should be following - they know the truth of oppressive impact and they know the brilliance of survival against numerous odds."*
To further strengthen our team, I am delighted that Malaak Malikyar Sills will be serving as our new Board Chair.
As an asylee from Afghanistan, and a representative of an underserved refugee community, Malaak has been a part of RIT’s community for 4 years. Malaak’s work focuses on forming community partnerships to spread cultural awareness & build alliances in an effort to end stigma and discrimination, promote wellness, recovery, resiliency and social inclusion.
Please join me in welcoming Jane and Malaak!
None of this could happen without you, our community. So THANK YOU again for the vital role you play! Whether as a program participant, staff member, volunteer, board member, or donor--you are ALL critical partners in creating this beloved community.
With heartfelt gratitude,
Laura Vaudreuil
Co-Executive Director
*Quoted from adrienne maree brown, “Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation (Emergent Strategy Series)”
