After six years of leading the Foundation, Judy Patrick is stepping out of her role as President and CEO and into a new one—Director of Public Policy. In this podcast, we speak with Judy and one of our Board members, Theresa Fay-Bustillos, about this unconventional leadership transition.
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Why transition and why now? Because the time has come for the Foundation to strengthen its impact by doing even more public policy work in California.
The stars have aligned to make it right. If you listened to the President’s State of the Union Address in 2014, you heard him talk about equal pay, sick leave, paid family leave and the minimum wage. At the same time, recent reports from sources such as the Stanford Center on Poverty and the Shriver Report reflect increased awareness and outrage about the severe harm caused by poverty and income inequality—not just in California, but in the United States.
Women’s economic security is now on the state and national agenda for the first time in a very long time and the Foundation is ready to launch, full force, our public policy and advocacy campaigns. Our goal is to take advantage of this opportunity and strengthen the safety net in the state, push for paid sick leave and accelerate the increase of the minimum wage so as to benefit low-income women and families.
Judy is the perfect person to lead these efforts. After all, she was instrumental in the creation of the Women’s Policy Institute, our renowned leadership training and public policy program for women community leaders.
And it’s exciting to get a new leader. Ultimately, this kind of transition is an opportunity—and a gift.
“Change is hard. It’s always hard when you have a leader that you are happy with and think is doing a great job. There’s always a moment when you think, Why change what’s working well? But, at the end of the day, I do think change is good. No matter how much we love Judy and think that she’s done a great job, a new leader will bring new perspectives and new insights. And I think that new insights, new perspectives and new ways of thinking are good for an organization. When you’re preserving the voice of history, reason and experience and bringing in the new—that’s the best of both worlds. I think we’ve got the best,” said Theresa Fay-Bustillos.
Listen to the podcast and share your thoughts with us by commenting. Also, you can read the transcript of this podcast.