John,

Today, AFJ’s Board of Directors announced that our President, Rakim H.D. Brooks, will be leaving in the coming months to assume an exciting new role as Senior Vice President of Risk and Legal Strategies for the JPB Foundation. Our long-time movement leaders Keith Thirion, Vice President of Strategy, and Betsy Miller Kittredge, Vice President of Operations and Chief of Staff, to serve as Interim Co-Presidents following Rakim’s departure.

During his tenure, Rakim grew AFJ’s staff from 30 to 45 and the budget from $6.5 to over $9M, developed key partnerships and collaborations within the progressive movement, and built the progressive principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging into AFJ’s organizational DNA.
Rakim’s accomplishments include:
- Building out AFJ’s work on the state courts.
- Growing the organization’s membership by recruiting 33 new member organizations
- Expanding the reach of AFJ’s highly respected Bolder Advocacy program with new on-demand offerings.
- Working with others in the movement to secure the confirmation of more than 190 professionally diverse federal judges, including Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first African-American woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
- Developing a timely media campaign to urge Justice Clarence Thomas to resign from the Supreme Court.

Following his departure, Rakim will continue to support our interim co-presidents to ensure a smooth transition. We are well-positioned for our next stage of growth — stronger than ever as we build the power of nonprofits across the country through our Bolder Advocacy program and lead the fight to transform our courts by championing diverse movement lawyers for federal and state benches.

AFJ’s strength remains rooted in our nearly 150 member organizations, diverse in mission but united in our commitment to justice. As we have been since our founding in 1979, AFJ is on the forefront of the fight to build a stronger constitutional democracy.

Sincerely,
Alliance for Justice

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