Foundation News

The purpose of the Switzer Network is to create an engaged and supportive community where fellows feel welcomed and inspired by their peers and increase their impact through leadership development and collaboration. In times like these, we want the network to be a place of respite, resources, and unconditional support for your professional and personal selves. We are writing to highlight the many ways in which the foundation’s programs can support fellows facing uncertainty, marginalization, and opposition in their environmental work.

This story shares ways that the foundation and fellows’ workplaces are supporting employee well-being and work-life balance.

We are delighted to introduce you to the newest member of the Switzer Foundation team - Maya Higgins! As Program Manager, Maya will serve as the heart of grant and leadership development programs at the foundation by leading recruitment and selection for the Switzer Fellowship, designing and hosting retreats and professional development opportunities, and administering our post-fellowship grant programs.

In 2021, the Switzer Foundation reimagined our approach to hiring staff to align with best practices in equitable recruiting. As we launched recruitment for the Program Manager position late last year, we made additional improvements to our hiring practices. We share this story in order to be transparent about the policies and practices we are adopting to advance equity and justice across the foundation, and to offer resources that enable Switzer Network members to make improvements to hiring practices at their own organizations.

Switzer Fellows learned principles of responsive listening, empathic communication, and making scientific messages memorable, in this online workshop facilitated by the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science.

A top priority from the foundation’s recent strategic review process was to increase the equity and effectiveness of the foundation’s post-fellowship grant programs. We are pleased to share about several changes we have made to these programs.

The Switzer Network convened a Board Service Panel in order to help Switzer Fellows learn from and support each other around the topic of joining, serving on or diversifying nonprofit Boards of Directors.

The Fellows Advisory Committee (FAC) uses their wisdom and experience as Switzer Fellows to advise the foundation to ensure our programs and efforts are relevant for the Switzer Network. We welcomed three new members to the committee this...