Articles

Meet Our Interim Executive Director

The Garrison Institute is delighted to welcome Beth Schecter as its Interim Executive Director. An expert on executive staff transition, board governance and leadership for non-profit organizations, Beth has over 20 years of executive management experience, including 17 years as an executive director of non-profit behavioral health and social service organizations. She has also worked closely with faith-based and arts organizations.

Beth’s skillset and experience dovetails with the Institute’s current needs. She is highly qualified to work with our staff and board as we head into a new phase of our development – building on our existing networks, expanding the reach of our programs, embarking on a new round of strategic planning, and working with the board as it conducts a search for a permanent executive director.

 For any organization, transitions are opportunities for reflection, creativity and growth. The Garrison Institute’s initiatives in the fields of contemplative education, behavioral science and climate change, and trauma care have become internationally known and respected and have generated high-level professional networks.  Our world-class retreat program, serving thousands each year, is seeding social change and evolving into a coherent initiative in its own right. These initiatives, considered cutting edge when they were founded, are now poised for rapid growth, and positioned at the core of emerging professional fields.

We are now focused on how best to use this transitional moment to build on the foundation we’ve laid, and take our work to the next level of service and impact. Helping organizations do this is what Beth specializes in, and she has done it successfully as an interim executive director for several non-profits. In the months ahead, with Beth’s guidance and support, we believe the Garrison Institute will benefit from an effectively managed transition to a new stage of development. But more than that, we expect Beth will help us take large steps towards fulfilling our mission of transformational change.

Jonathan F. P. Rose
Co-founder and Board Chair
Garrison Institute