by Erica Iheme
It has often been said that the things that get you elevated are the things that you tend to do less of when you elevate. After heavy consideration, I have decided to step away from the position of Co-Executive Director of JMA for personal reasons that I hope you can understand. I will not be leaving the organization; I am just returning to my roots of organizing and continuing to build the work of JMA and our overall worker movement from a different seat. On November 1, 2024, I will be stepping into the position of Organizing Director, which is a new position that will work to develop JMA’s overall organizing program and model.
As close friends of JMA and partners in our work and mission, we wanted to reach out and share this news with you immediately. Many of you have had a front-row seat to witness how my career at JMA has evolved from the Southern Director to Co-Executive Director. Without your support, we could not have experienced success and growth over the last few years. Thank you! This is an exciting time, and I look forward to your continued support of me—and JMA—in my new role.
This shift will give me space to create a better balance for my personal and work life. For my personal life, that now includes continuing to get healthy, being a football mom of three kids, and learning how to parent a preteen. Work-life includes going back to doing what I am truly called to do: growing the next generation of organizers.
I shared this information a while ago with my Partner in Cahoots and Co-Executive, Madeline, who has been fully supportive of my decision. We have been working with a coach over the last year and a half, which was key to helping me get clarity and the confidence to make such a bold move that I am excited about.
At JMA, we have built a leaderful organization full of talented folks who are more than capable of maintaining the momentum that we have built over the years during this transition. This also creates the opportunity to bring on a new talent with fresh perspective to our executive leadership team. This can be a game changer for us!
As I move into my new role, Madeline will continue as Executive Director, and the organization will look for new talent to complement her skills. JMA remains firmly committed to the co-leadership model, which we have found creates greater sustainability overall. As many wise leaders have commented, being a sole Executive Director of a growing organization is simply not conducive to living a balanced and healthy life.
As Organizing Director, I will serve as chief organizer, developing our campaign and strategic organizers across all of our regions, and supporting them in building winnable campaigns—the backbone of our mission and vision. This will include developing an overall organizing culture across JMA rooted in our evolving theory to win, build out a community of practice that helps measure success, and deeply solidifying this organizing culture both internally and externally. Also in my new role, I hope to begin to think about how to not only recruit more people of color into organizing, but how to sustain them in this space as well. JMA is in a new chapter with a lot of exciting work happening. I love being a part of this community, and very much look forward to sharing what we have cooking up in 2025 with you.
As my sister of the movement, Jennifer Epps once said, “Erica, you are an organizers’ organizer.” Then, I said, “Yes, and is!” I’m stepping into this role with so many new and exciting ideas that I have for our organizing work and I would love to share these ideas with you. Our Development Team will be hosting a few informational meetings called “Golden Hours” where I am happy to share my hopes, goals and dreams for JMA organizing in 2025. If you are interested in attending one of these meetings, please email our development director, Kris White at kwhite@jobstomoveamerica.org.