Dear Flamboyan Community,
For more than 10 years, the Flamboyan Foundation has partnered with educators, schools, and system leaders to build trusting relationships with families in DC and communities across the country. The challenges presented by COVID-19 over this past year have proven just how essential meaningful family engagement is for both academic success and social belonging in school, particularly for the Black and Brown students most likely to be adversely affected by educational inequities. As we deepen and expand REAL Family Engagement in this pivotal moment and into the future, we are thrilled to announce Patience B. Peabody as Flamboyan DC’s new Executive Director.
For the past three years, Patience has served as Flamboyan’s Senior Managing Director of Communications and External Affairs, where she has led the transformation of our communications work into a strategic opportunity to build partnerships both in DC and in Puerto Rico. Under her leadership, Flamboyan has launched major initiatives like the REAL Family Engagement platform, as well as signature products and events, including the national Promise of Family Engagement event at the Howard Theatre in November 2019 and the launch of the Flamboyan Arts Fund in partnership with Hamilton and the Miranda family in Puerto Rico. In all her work, Patience’s ability to balance aspiration and pragmatism is as strong as her belief in the power of communities to change the world. She brings with her a reputation for bold ideas, straight talk, and respect and care for others.
Her career – which includes an appointment to DC’s state education agency under Mayor Bowser’s administration, serving as a vice president at poverty alleviation organization LIFT, and managing an international grant portfolio at anti-hunger organization Share Our Strength – illustrates her activism for low-income communities. She unapologetically brings her lived experience as a Black, formerly homeless, first-generation college educated woman. As a native Washingtonian who proudly grew up in southeast DC and attended DC Public Schools across the city, her commitment to the work out of our DC office runs deep. The intersections of Patience’s experience, innate talents, and professional accomplishments make her the right leader at the right time for Flamboyan.
As DC Executive Director, Patience joins the two of us and Puerto Rico Executive Director Carlos Rodriguez on Flamboyan’s Senior Leadership Team, where together we drive the organization’s strategic direction. When we consider how far we have come in the last 10 years, from the beginnings of our work in DC, to the Johns Hopkins study proving the efficacy of family engagement, to serving thousands of educators and school leaders through our trainings, fellowships, and programming, our work has continually evolved to bring meaningful, trusting relationships to those most impacted by inequity. As we look toward the future, we are grateful to those who have laid the groundwork that brought us where we are today.
As she embarks on her first year in her new role, Patience will be focused on our core values of people, equity, impact, and catalytic action. In the coming months, she will be reaching out to many of you to hear your reflections on our collective work. When she reaches out, we encourage you to take the time to get to know her, not just as our Executive Director, but as the passionate, strategic, and inspiring person she is. In the meantime, if you are interested in learning more about our work in DC and across the United States, or if you have ideas about how we might be able to partner together, please don’t hesitate to connect with Patience directly.
We are deeply committed to Patience’s success and put the full weight of our partnerships, resources, and network behind her as she leads a visionary future for Flamboyan’s work out of our DC office. Please join us in congratulating Patience and welcoming her as our DC Executive Director!
In partnership,
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Kristin Ehrgood CEO + Board Chair |
Marci Young President + COO |
