Summary
Shawna R. Williams
Bridges Project for Education may be undergoing a change at the top but its mission to assist local students seeking a higher education remains unchanged. By June 1, Ben Maddox, executive director, will hand over the reins to college counselors Sue Goldberg and Joleen Montoya Dye. Goldberg and Montoya Dye will assume the role as codirectors as well remain college prep counselors for Taos High School and at their physical office. Bridges is a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting students prepare for college through free college counseling, admissions, scholarship and financial aid assistance, and college prep workshops. "The whole transition has been a thoughtful process, with feelings of good will on all sides," said Goldberg. "We want to make it clear that Maddox is not resigning. This is more of an evolution. We want to share publicly that this feels like a good move for everybody." Montoya Dye, who has been with the program for a year, said she is very happy Maddox is staying involved. "It means a lot that he's that committed to the organization." Maddox said this has been a process that the staff at Bridges has talked about for a number of years. "All non-profits are struggling right now," said Maddox. "One thing we've been trying to do is streamline things, become more efficient. One way to do that is to train the two counselors to become co-directors, and then we can do away with my salaried position." Maddox will become the first member of a new advisory board for Bridges, and spend more time fundraising for the small nonprofit. Currently Bridges is supported by local individual and business donors: a three-year LANL grant which they are in the final year of receiving; private, long-term funders of the Rowe Foundation; and they have just been awarded a $35,000 Daniels Fund grant. Goldberg and Montoya Dye have spent the last two months with Maddox, learning his responsibilities and gradually taking over in their new role.See the full content of this document
Extract
Changes Afoot at Bridges
Active in the community
Maddox came to Taos in the summer of 2001, after Bridges board president, Rebeca Romero hired him as executive director. At that time he was the associate director...See the full content of this document
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