Dear Friends of the Friends House,

In the late evening of May 31, 2017, I got out of a taxi, rang the doorbell at 8 Chestnut Street, and began my journey as a staff member at the Beacon Hill Friends House.

This winter, I reached a new point in my journey with the Friends House: I discerned that it’s time for me to move on.

In the nearly six years I’ve served as Executive Director, I’ve had the honor and pleasure of living with and supporting 63 amazing other residents in their own journeys of living in intentional community. I’ve gotten to meet and learn from hundreds of other members of the broader Friends House community: former residents and staff, board and committee members, Beacon Hill neighbors, Friends (Quakers!) near and far, and many others. I’ve had the great privilege to work alongside and supervise a total of four fantastic colleagues (Jeff Edenberg, Vickie Wu, Emily Savin, and Jen Newman), along with six Fellows and dozens of other volunteers. Serving in this role has been an amazing opportunity to deepen in community, to learn more from the Quaker tradition, to dream big about the potential of this amazing institution, and to see new initiatives and improvements come to fruition.

BHFH has been through a lot in the past half-decade: Implementing the 2017 Strategic Plan, expanding its public programming to thousands of participants, polishing and boosting its presence in the community and the world, updating many behind-the-scenes administrative systems and processes, maintaining tight focus on operations (such as keeping occupancy as full as possible), completing some physical improvements to the building… and, significantly, navigating the Covid-19 pandemic.

I feel good about my time here, and while I’m not burned out, I do feel tired, and it feels like a good time to transition on and make space for others to step into leadership. My last day in my staff role at BHFH will be Friday April 14. I plan to spend a few months taking a sabbatical, to be more present for my family (including my energetic three-year-old son!) and to seek some spaciousness in which to figure out what to do in the next phase of my career. I’ll be staying in the area, too – living in Cambridge – and I look forward to supporting and being a cheerleader for the Friends House “from the outside.”

Speaking of others stepping into leadership, I’m very excited about the results of the Board’s work over the past couple months to determine the next phase of BHFH’s staffing. For more on that, see below for a message from my dear mentor, friend, and Clerk of the BHFH Board of Managers, Regina McCarthy.