September 23, 2005. An announcement from Lamar
Marshall, President of WildLaw's Board of Directors:
Dear Members and Friends of WildLaw,
In response to mounting assaults on the environment and the natural
disasters that are following, the WildLaw Board of Directors is pleased to
announce our plan to expand services and support for groups working to protect
the environment.
As WildLaw’s founder, Ray Vaughan has served as our Executive Director
since February 1997. Ray has devoted his time, energy and vast skills to
bringing the vision of affordable public interest law to environmental groups
across the southeast and other hotspots of activity in the country. Under Ray’s
leadership, WildLaw has grown to a size that takes too much of Ray’s specialized
organizing and legal skills away from critical programs. In order to maximize
Ray’s time, effectiveness and specialized legal skills, we are pleased to
announce that as of January 2, 2006, Ray will become WildLaw’s first Senior
Director of Policies and Programs and do full time what he loves and what has
brought WildLaw to this stage in its organizational development where we feel
ready to hire an Executive Director specializing in development and
administration. On behalf of the many groups Ray and WildLaw have served, we
extend our deepest gratitude for a vision achieved and a job well done.
Congratulations on the new position.
We have hired Sara O’Neal as our next Executive Director, effective
January 2, 2006. As most of you know, Sara has been the President of Green
Pursuits, a grassroots fundraising and organizational development consulting
company, for the past 9 years. Before Green Pursuits, she was the Director of
Major Gifts –East of the Rockies for the Sierra Club and identified, cultivated
and solicited many major gifts in her region. She has also been the Director of
Development for the Atlanta Ballet. Sara brings a very diverse skill set to
WildLaw that will have many synergistic benefits for our organization as well as
our clients and our work. Her fundraising skills and experience in the South
for environmental causes are without peer.
As part of the expansion of WildLaw’s services, Sara will offer client
organizations her skills in facilitation, strategic planning, organizational
training and other group-building processes at prices reduced from what they now
pay elsewhere, thus making these services more available to a wider field of
groups.
Those who know Sara will understand how excited we are to have Sara leave
the private consulting sector and pick WildLaw as the group she wants to work
with as Executive Director. Of course, Sara is no stranger to WildLaw and our
mission; she has been with us from the beginning. She currently serves on our
Board and in fact, when Ray and I met to found WildLaw and pick its name, Sara
was the one who hosted our meeting and helped us launch WildLaw.
WildLaw is on the move. We will complete our latest strategic planning
process in February 2006 and share those plans soon thereafter. Just last week,
Ray was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns to the Roadless
Area Conservation National Advisory Committee. This 13-member committee will
provide advice and recommendations on implementing the state petitions for
Inventoried Roadless Area Management Rule adopted by USDA in May of 2005.
Twice this summer, WildLaw was invited to testify before congressional hearings
on the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. We
are at the forefront nationwide of work to protect National Forests and to make
workable and better the new regulatory changes made by the Administration.
Please join the BOD and Staff of WildLaw in congratulating Ray and Sara
in their new positions. As always, we welcome your feedback regarding our
programs, proposals and plans.
Thank you,
Lamar Marshall
Chair of the WildLaw BOD
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