Hi John,
I’ll never forget the day Karundi gave me my first hug three years ago. It was right after her final interview—she had blown us away with her energy and enthusiasm—and I walked out of the conference room just to say good-bye. She, like me, was a new mom and had left her baby for the first time to fly to Minneapolis to interview for this role. We bonded over our babies and shared a hug—her warmth quickly enveloped me and I knew in my gut we were both where we were meant to be. It was the start of something beautiful.
6 weeks later, Karundi took the helm as re:power’s first Black woman Executive Director. And perhaps, more importantly, she had taken over an organization that had just rebranded after 17 years and was finding its way forward.
With an unrelenting passion and dedication, Karundi has led re:power through three years of challenges and celebrations. Our work in this movement isn’t easy—it’s exhausting on the best of days and on the hard ones, it can feel downright impossible. Karundi’s leadership has been a pillar of strength for many of us at re:power, not in the traditional sense of a one-dimensional figurehead, but instead in ways that surprised many of us because we had never been led in this way before.
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Karundi’s strength is in her authenticity. She is transparent. She shows us when she’s triumphant and when she’s angry; when she’s joyful and when she’s sad. And she harnesses all of those emotions into meaningful action—whether that is to take a day off to rest or to push ourselves to new heights. She is the embodiment of what leadership should and could look like if we all had the courage to be Karundi. Today we celebrate Karundi’s third anniversary as the leader of re:power. The leader we needed then and the leader we still need now. We hope you’ll join us in celebrating our amazing ED by tweeting at her or leaving a comment on our instagram post! And, because we know Karundi well, we also know she wouldn’t want us to miss the opportunity to tell you—we have four trainings that are open with applications. APPLY TODAY!
In love and solidarity, Kavita Khandekar Chopra and Team re:power |
