Dear Community,

Have you listened to the new Jill Scott album? I have been getting into it lately and last week in a rehearsal for Wednesday's membership meeting, we selected her new song, Lifting Me Up, as the intro song to welcome women in. The chorus, "your love keeps lifting me up," over that DC go-go beat feels like a love letter to this movement and the perfect way for us to start our walking season. Because the love of the women in this movement, for each other, is lifting so many out of stuck places, dry places, dark places, and into the light and that song is a reminder and a backdrop to our rising.

If you have not RSVP'd for the meeting, here is the link.

It is a walking meeting happening Wednesday at noon ET. If you cannot join live, we will share the recording.

This membership meeting will be the first of the year, but not the last. We heard from you that you want more opportunities like this to connect, and we will now host them quarterly. At the membership meeting we will introduce you to the new tools and resources that we have to support you, including the team.

But before we get there, I want to share an important update about Morgan's and my roles in the movement.

This week marks an anniversary. Eighteen years ago, April 2008, we sent the first ever GirlTREK email. An invitation to a 10-week spring walking challenge that intentionally started on Easter weekend. It would be five more years before we built up enough momentum and support to quit our jobs and officially become the first two employees of GirlTREK Inc. Since that time, Morgan has served faithfully as CEO, and I have served as COO and most recently as Chief of Recruitment. The titles were secondary to the title of Trekker, which has always been our most important role.

Now as the movement evolves, we are evolving to better support it.

After conceiving the idea of GirlTREK while working at a small school in Bridgeport, CT. After taking a leap of faith to create the 501c3 that would allow us to exist. After leading the strategy that moved us from two friends to one million. After sharing her life story on every stage and space imaginable to help this movement grow. After countless late nights and early mornings and Saturdays in the field. Morgan has made a powerful decision to transition from her role as CEO. She will continue to serve the movement as a member of our Board of Directors, and of course, as a Trekker in the streets.

This decision was made with love and care and is the truest sign of a mature and healthy organization.

With Morgan's transition, our board and leadership team came together to ask what this moment required. With their full support, I was appointed to a new role of President, responsible for leading our strategic vision, stewarding our resources, building the partnerships that sustain this movement, telling our story, and ensuring that everything we do models the mission and embodies our values.

Both Morgan and I are grateful that we have created something so big and beautiful that it can shift in necessary ways while remaining true to our core vision.

We are able to make these shifts because of the team we work with and walk alongside of.

Ayanna Taylor joined the team three years ago as Chief of Staff and served most recently as Chief Growth Officer. She has now moved into the role of Executive Director, responsible for leading and supporting the national staff.

Our national staff is now organized into three departments built to scale support to members. Programs is responsible for organizing us to walk, talk, and solve problems together. External Affairs is responsible for amplifying your voices and our impact, and securing the resources to power the movement. Operations is responsible for the technology that will connect us, the store that clothes us, and tracking our impact so we understand how we are changing lives.

At the membership meeting you will hear from the people closest to this work. Most of them are OG Trekkers who started as volunteers and were recruited to the national staff. They are excited to talk to you, and mostly excited for us all to get walking more.

I am excited for you to meet them. This meeting is just the first opportunity, not the last. Throughout this year we will create spaces in person and online to connect to them, to say thank you to Morgan and share gratitude for her years of service as CEO, and to celebrate what we have done and are doing together.

It all starts Wednesday, April 1st. RSVP here.

If you do not have your sneakers by the door, put them there now.

We will see you on the pavement.

With love,
Vanessa 

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