Rita McLennon Completes 26-Year Stint at the Shriver Center

Rita McLennon, the Shriver Center’s executive director from 1993 to 2006 and currently its vice president of external affairs, leaves the Shriver Center at the end of the month. John Bouman, the Shriver Center president, announced her approaching departure in the following letter:

Dear Friend of the Shriver Center:

I am writing to inform you that Rita McLennon will be leaving the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law on September 28, 2007. Effective October 1, 2007, Rita will begin her new duties as the Director of Development for the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), a not-for-profit law office founded in 1990 to provide free civil legal services to low-income New Yorkers. We congratulate Rita on this important opportunity to continue her career of promoting justice for the poor.

For the past 26 years, Rita McLennon has dedicated herself to the Shriver Center’s mission to end poverty. As Executive Director for more than fourteen years, Rita built the Shriver Center into a strong national communication, research, and advocacy center for the poverty law community, public policy leaders, and other advocates for low-income people. Before that, Rita served on the board for eleven years.
 
We are extremely proud of Rita’s effective leadership in advancing the Shriver Center’s efforts to end poverty. During her tenure, Rita brought the organization through a major funding crisis to its current stability and growing national stature. She worked in partnership with Ilze Hirsh to ensure that Clearinghouse Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy continues to serve as the fundamental communication resource among advocates for the poor. Rita also partnered with Bill Wilen and me and our legal colleagues, not only enabling us to continue our work after the loss of federal funds but also expanding our work to a national level. Most importantly, during her 26 years of service, Rita advanced the work of Sargent Shriver throughout the country by expanding on his legacy of genius and courage in building the modern-day legal services movement.

When Rita launched the reorganization of the Shriver Center in 2006, she agreed to continue here until the transition was comfortably in place, and then to pursue new career objectives.  The transition here at the Center is going well -- we have a strong staff and a committed, national Board of Directors, and our advocacy, communication, fund-raising and operations functions are well in hand. While it is never easy to lose a great leader, this is an excellent time for Rita to make the transition to this exciting new opportunity in New York.

We at the Shriver Center owe Rita so much—in fact, we owe her for our very survival. We are very grateful for her talented service here and for everything that we’ve learned from her. The poverty law community in New York will surely benefit from her talent and dedication. We wish her every success in her new venture.

Sincerely,


John Bouman
President and Chief Executive Officer