Searching for Speak About It's Next Leader
A message from the Speak About It Board of Directors
When Shane broke the news to us about his departure, I know that I, like many Board members, immediately found it hard to imagine Speak About It without him. Shane is one of the most engaging, driven, passionate, and entertaining leaders many of us know, who through the synergy of his talents, energy, and vision brought Speak About It, Inc., into being and nurtured its growth and development for nearly a decade. Shane has guided what began as a powerful play at Bowdoin College into a thriving organization with a national and global reach.
That moment of unease quickly passed as we realized how Shane had cultivated an organization that no longer relies on one person alone. Shane’s passion is now shared by two fellow staff members, a creative director, dozens of actor educators, a thriving Board of Directors, hundreds of college and school partners, and hundreds of supporters and friends. Shane, I know I speak for the entire global team of Speak About It that we thank you deeply for the lasting impact you have made in our field, on our campuses, and on each one of us individually.
Amidst our farewells, the Board is excited for this next chapter in Speak About It’s evolution. We look forward to new opportunities to meet the obvious need for the training and education we provide, to think about new opportunities for growth, and to strategize about our future. I am pleased to be chairing a search committee comprising dedicated current and former board members and our creative director, and that we have retained Emily Chaleff, of Chaleff Consulting, to support our search process. We have already been hard at work assessing our organization’s leadership needs and building our candidate profile. We are ready to open the search process in the coming days. Although we plan to welcome the new Executive Director this summer, we are grateful that Shane is committed to helping us through a smooth transition.
Interested candidates can find the job posting here. Are you interested in exploring this opportunity? Would you like to nominate someone? Our committee can be reached at SAISearch18@gmail.com, and we look forward to continuing to engage with the Speak About It community as we embark on this next adventure for Speak About It.
A farewell message from Shane
Thank you to all the friends, donors, teachers, parents, educators, and volunteers who have enthusiastically supported us over these last few years. Thank you for inviting Speak About It to your schools, classrooms, and communities, and for joining us in creating a safer and healthier future for tomorrow's leaders. I’m excited, grateful, honored, and slightly terrified to announce that, with full support of the board and staff, I will stepping down after eight years as ExecutiveDirector at the end of the summer. Speak About It is as strong as ever, and will continue to share its unique brand of inclusive, pleasure-focused, consent education far into the future. However, it is time for me to explore other avenues in my own career.
Speak About It has grown immensely since our founding in 2010. Speak About It has been to over 100 schools in dozens of states and three countries. We have given presentations and hosted performances for over 200,000 students. We’ve trained over 70 educators to be compassionate, articulate consent warriors on the front lines of combating rape culture. Since becoming a nonprofit organization in 2012, we’ve had the honor of collaborating with over 30 board members, who have worked tirelessly to ensure our policies are fair and equitable and our organization has a strong foundation on which to stand. And we’ve been fortunate to have the support of hundreds donors and volunteers whose enthusiasm for our work and generosity has helped us grow each and every year.
The impetus to become a nonprofit in our early years was to ensure that this message and incredible programming would outlast and out-thrive my own time at Speak About It. The work that you all love and support is bigger than me, and our mission will continue to reach farther than baby Bowdoin graduate Shane could ever have imagined. It has been an incredible journey to watch this organization grow from a seed of an idea into one integral to the dialogue about healthy sexuality at schools across the country. We couldn’t have done it without all of your support, and I am so proud to have helmed Speak About It through its early years. I look forward to seeing what is in store for Speak About It in this next stage.
I’m equally excited to see what the future has in store for me. I know that the organization will be in great hands with our Board of Directors whom I trust will continue the leadership, character, and integrity of our work.
Thank you!