Next: Chris George and successor Maggie Mitchell Salem.
Running a $12 million-a-year nonprofit with 138 staffers helping resettle 1,000 refugees a year is a big enough challenge.
Add to that inheriting the helm of such an effort from a person who made all that possible over 18 years.
Maggie Mitchell Salem knows she has her work cut out for her as she does that — stepping into the shoes of Chris George as executive director of Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS).
And, she said, she’s ready.
Salem, who has spent decades doing international refugee and education work, begins work as chief of the Goatville-based, nationally recognized nonprofit on Jan. 1.
George is leaving after 18 years, handing over a community-connected organization that the U.S. government designated a model “Welcome Corps” for resettling refugees from war-torn nations such as Syria and, especially these days, Afghanistan.
“He’s an institution. A legend — the worst kind of person to succeed,” Salem quipped.
She made the remark during a joint appearance with George on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. George appeared in person, Salem by Zoom from Carthage, Tunisia, where she has been helping to direct the National Democratic Institute on “improving inclusive, representative goverance that addresses citizens’ priorities.” (Click here for a story detailing her background.)
“I want to keep doing an amazing job” while focusing on communications and development to continue building IRIS, Salem said.
“I don’t want a desk. My job is to be out and about,” she added.
George’s advice to his successor: Focus on the “welcoming and hospitality” that marked her work abroad with international organizations: “Let that shine.”
Click on the above video to watch the full discussion with IRIS’s Maggie Mitchell Salem and Chris George on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of Dateline New Haven.