Welcoming our next Board Chair, Rebecca V. Dixon!
At the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, we know that embracing change will allow us to more effectively do our work. For the Board, good governance guides us to serve fixed terms, calling on members to hand leadership over to others on a regular basis and enable a renewal of the foundation’s work and presence in the world. To this end, there are various leadership transitions that I am pleased to share with you.
Rebecca V. Dixon will serve as Board Chair of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation beginning January 1, 2026. She is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Employment Law Project (NELP), a leading national nonprofit advancing a just and inclusive economy where all workers have expansive rights and access to good jobs. A respected national leader in labor and economic justice, Ms. Dixon has expanded NELP’s reach and impact by embedding racial and gender equity throughout its strategy and partnerships with more than 300 organizations nationwide. Her motivation for advancing workers’ rights and commitment to equity are deeply rooted in her lived experience growing up in rural Mississippi at the intersection of race, class, and gender. Ms. Dixon joined the Noyes Foundation Board in 2022 and currently serves on the Executive Committee as Treasurer.
Rebecca will work closely with the recently announced incoming President, Amy T. Morris, who will lead and guide us into this next meaningful chapter that continues to support our community of partners and allies across intersecting movements.
Change also invites gratitude. We extend our appreciation to Richard Burns for his service as Interim Executive Director for the past sixteen months. He worked closely with our Board and staff to steward the staffing transition with confidence and minimal disruption. We wish him continued success as advisor to the Johnson Family Foundation and future partners who will benefit from his wisdom and deep knowledge of philanthropy and leadership transitions.
As my term as Board Chair comes to a close, I’m proud to have served the foundation with an outstanding and committed set of Board and staff colleagues. Noyes has stood by its grantees and communities by elevating its financial support during the challenging years of the COVID pandemic and sustaining support in the face of attacks on our democracy, communities in Mississippi and New York, and Indigenous people in the US. We continue to lead in the field of responsible investing, with an Investment Policy Statement that demonstrates how to deploy capital to advance our vision of environmental and social justice with values-aligned managers and firms.
We now look to Amy and Rebecca to steward the foundation’s work to support organizations advancing justice and equity for all in a world that continues to oppress historically marginalized communities. It has been my privilege to serve as Board Chair for the past two years and serve on the Board since 2020, and I look forward to this next chapter for the foundation.
With gratitude,
Marc Diaz
Chair, Board of Directors
