Position Update from Lighthall

[Guest guest]

To All My Colleagues and Friends:

I would like to announce that as of June 30th, I will be leaving my current position as Executive Director of CIRS to join the staff of the Relational Culture Institute. Located in Fresno, the RCI is a new non-profit organization whose mission is to build the capacity of NGOs in California's underserved communities to work collaboratively for progressive social change. In this new position I will be able to focus more directly on two issues of deep concern to me: First, improving the health and well-being of California's hardworking farmworkers and immigrants, and second, maintaining the economic viability of California agriculture and its rural communities. This work builds upon the groundbreaking California Agricultural Workers Health Survey conducted by CIRS and funded by The California Endowment. Through the RCI, I also hope to stay involved with the Central Valley Partnership, an organizational collaborative funded by the Irvine Foundation devoted to promoting immigrant civic participation in the Valley. Dividing my time between and Fresno, I will be working part-time at RCI for several months while I finish several projects as a contractor to CIRS. I would like to thank the Board of Directors of CIRS for giving me the opportunity to lead CIRS over these past three years. I have gained a tremendous appreciation for CIRS' critically important role in conducting applied research that directly examines the pressing needs of rural California. In the process I have been continually inspired by the hard work and dedication to California's underserved residents demonstrated by the CIRS staff and the many other organizations who address the same problems through different means. I would also like to make a special note of appreciation for the support CIRS has received from our funders over the past three years, in particular The California Endowment and the Irvine Foundation. Without their vision, a vision that recognizes the relevance of applied research to social change, CIRS could not exist. But most of all, as I anticipate my new position, I am gratified by the opportunity to continue working with such a talented cohort of colleagues and friends.

Sincerely,

Lighthall Ph.D.Executive DirectorCalifornia Institute for Rural Studies221 G Street, Suite 204, CA 95616Tel: (530)756-6555Fax: (530)756-7429dlighthall@...www.cirsinc.org