Farewell and Hello: Staffing Changes at Fandom Forward

This week, we want to share two pieces of news about changing leadership here at Fandom Forward! Today, a letter from our Co-Managing Director, Janae, who will be stepping down later this month. On Thursday, we’ll let you know about our newest Senior Staffer and our plans for expanding our team this summer!

Over seven years, Janae has been an incredible force for good in our community and for change around the world. We’re so grateful for all she’s done and for the ways she’s helped us grow. We’ll miss working with her on a daily basis, but we’re excited to know that she’ll be sticking around as an advisor and friend of Fandom Forward for years to come.

So without further ado, here’s a letter from Janae:

Dear friends and heroes,

After over seven years at Fandom Forward, I will be stepping down from my position as Co-Managing Director later this month. I didn’t plan on this seven year graduation, but it feels awfully on brand, doesn’t it?

I can’t properly express how important and how transformative the opportunity to work here has been. Since I’ve been here, our Wizard Activist School provided over 3,000 free trainings to budding activists; our toolkits have explored countless fandoms, and had the opportunity to work with folks like Bambadjan Bamba, Janet Varney, and Lynda Carter; our Chapters program has served hundreds of communities on six continents (I never did manage to recruit that Antarctica chapter). Nearest and dearest to my heart, steering Granger Leadership Academy from a budding experiment to the thriving community it is today is filled with memories I’ll never forget.

In a time when the world wants to break us, spending my days with people willing to fight for immigrants, for trans folks, for women, for democracy, for a world governed by love and not separation, has kept me going. This community — from my fellow Senior Staffers, to our incredible volunteers, to our members around the globe — manages over and over again to hold tight to hope and make incredible change in the face of hate.

Later this week we’ll be sharing some exciting announcements about changes to Senior Staff, including new folks who I know will carry on the legacy of this organization with joy, empathy, and integrity. I’m thrilled to see what they do next.

They say activism is a relay race, and as I pass my flag to the next leaders of this movement I hope you’ll consider making a donation to start the next leg of their journey off strong.

To you, for every moment of magic: thank you.

Hoping to do some good in the world,

Janae Phillips