Announcing our New Community Leader / Executive Director - Maggie Clack
L'Arche Portland is pleased to announce that Maggie Clack has been named our next Community Leader/Executive Director. Maggie currently serves as Director of Operations and will assume her new role on January 1st.
Image Description: Maggie with her dog, Mack
Board President, Andrew Davidson, writes in his announcement: "After meeting with and interviewing multiple exceptional candidates, it was the Recruitment Team's consensus recommendation that the Board offer the position to Maggie through the existing mandate. Maggie is capable, thoughtful, and well-informed on the most pressing issues facing our community including the need to rebuild and reconnect the various peoples of our community, the need to prioritize and amplify the voices of our core members and others with IDD through inclusion, and the need to create a vibrant community life that helps us recruit and retain assistants and employees. Please join me in sending Maggie a hearty congratulations! We are so thrilled and lucky to have her step into this role!
"At the same time that we are welcoming Maggie into her new role, we will be saying farewell to our good friend and current Community Leader, Andy Noethe, as he moves into a leadership role with L'Arche USA. In the very near future, we will be reaching out to you all with regards to a celebration to jointly honor Andy as he moves on to his new role and welcome Maggie as she steps into the Executive Director Community Leader position. Stay tuned!"
Image Description: Maggie and Robyn on-stage at the 2019 Benefit Celebration
In accepting this role, Maggie offers a personal reflection to the community:
“Warmest greetings to the dedicated community and supporters of L'Arche Portland! My name is Maggie Clack, and I have had the honor of serving L’Arche Portland for just over six years in roles of increasing responsibility and leadership from Office Manager to Business Manager, to my current role of Director of Operations. The experience and abilities that have been nurtured in me over the past 6 years bring me confidence and excitement as I accept the role of Community Leader/Executive Director of L’Arche Portland.
“During my time at L’Arche Portland, I have been intimately engaged in many aspects of community, agency, and organization. I have felt the power of welcome with Erin’s exclamations of “Maggie here! Maggie here!”, celebrated Adam as he threw out the opening pitch at a Pickles Game, enjoyed countless FaceTime calls with Robyn and E after dinner and before “splish splash” time, and celebrated the legacies of Marilyn, Rodney, and Susan. I have been witness to the beautiful, supportive circle of friends that surround L’Arche Portland’s three homes. I have also been present for the challenges, isolation, and exhaustion that our community has experienced during the COVID-19 global pandemic, the grieving and loss of pillars of L’Arche Portland’s daily life, the financial uncertainty of 2020, and the findings of the investigation into the founder of L’Arche.
“As we look to the future, I believe connection is the key. As I distributed silent auction items and party packs during Benefit Celebration, it was so clear how much our wider community is itching for reconnection. It excites me to consider how to connect our new assistants with the wider, dynamic community that has been, and wants to be again, a part of L’Arche Portland. Connection is what L’Arche Portland does best, nurturing meaningful, authentic relationships. I am excited to use my experience and gifts in hospitality, familiarity and relationship-building, as well as call on my knowledge of the values and mission of L’Arche. I am honored to have been selected to lead L’Arche Portland and I will do so with a spirit of openness, abundance, compassion, and collaboration.”
You can reach Maggie at: maggie@larche-portland.org