ABOVE: One Orlando Alliance’s current executive director Jennifer Foster. (Photo by Jake Stevens)
ORLANDO | The One Orlando Alliance will begin its search for a new executive director as the organization’s current director, Jennifer Foster, announces she will be stepping down from the role.
In an announcement released July 21 to Alliance members, the board of directors stated that Foster’s departure “is aligned with the two-year agreement made when she stepped into this role.”
“I stepped in to fill a role that was needed and I think I’ve done what I’ve set out to do. Now I recognize that it’s time for someone new to step in,” Foster says.
Foster, along with Carlos Carbonell, were the original conveners of the Alliance which formed in 2016 following the shooting at Pulse. At the time, they pulled together 18 Central Florida LGBTQ organizations to help fill gaps in resources for those impacted by the tragedy.
“Carlos and I just jumped in and said, ‘what needs to be done?’ The first year was just us responding to the tragedy and making sure things were getting accomplished,” Foster recalls. “After that, we had these organizations formed, so we said, ‘What can we do with that? How can we continue to help?’”
Foster became the Alliance’s first board chair, stepping in as the organization’s founding executive director in Oct. 2018. In that time she has built the coalition into a group consisting of 43 organizations, helped ensure the LGBTQ community has a seat at government, corporate and philanthropic tables and led the coalition in creating the Alliance Agenda — a “road map that identifies our community’s biggest issues and everything we work on together.”
Foster says that because of each member’s commitment to the organization and the community, the Alliance has gotten to a place where it has built a solid foundation, creating a very strong culture within the organization.
“Those are the things I’m good at,” Foster says. “Setting the table, bringing people to it and getting these conversations going; now we need someone in who has different skill sets than I do to take us to the next level.”
“I have so many mixed emotions,” says the Alliance’s current board chair, Robin Maynard-Harris. “I’m certainly sad and at the same time so grateful for the time Jennifer has dedicated these past four years. She has an unbelievable way of collaborating and bringing people together.”
The board’s focus now shifts to searching for a new executive director, and while details of the process have not yet been released, Foster says she will assist in the process in any way she can help, something Maynard-Harris has no doubt about.
“We will collaboratively ensure a smooth transition. What I know for sure is that Jennifer has and will always have the Alliance’s best interest at heart,” she says.
While Foster is stepping down, it doesn’t mean she will be stepping away.
“This has been my heart and soul for four years, so I can’t just walk away from it,” Foster says. “I hope that I will always be involved in some way and we’ll have to figure out what that will look like. I will always be involved in some capacity.”
Foster’s last day as executive director will be Oct. 8.
