Bellingham, Wash. (September 9, 2025)—In December 2023, RE Sources transitioned to a co-executive director leadership model for a two-year trial period. We promoted three strong directors—Jay Kosa, Ander Russell, and Janet Marino—who continued to oversee their departments while sharing executive director responsibilities. This structure reflects how RE Sources has always approached challenges: identifying pressing needs, assessing our strengths, and finding creative, sometimes non-traditional, ways to work. A co-leadership model offers greater resilience, a less hierarchical organizational structure, and provides the benefit of diverse perspectives and expertise when impactful decisions are made. From the start, we committed to assessing the model at the end of 2025.
This summer, we are moving into a new chapter with the departure of Co-Executive Director Jay Kosa, who led our communications and development teams. Jay has pursued an opportunity that reconnects him with his passion for multimedia storytelling with one of our partner organizations, Children of the Setting Sun Productions. We are deeply grateful for his leadership and many contributions over the past five years, and look forward to working with him in this new capacity!
With his departure, our Board of Directors and staff have decided to begin the assessment of the co-leadership model a few months earlier than planned. Over the coming months, we will reflect on what has worked, what we’ve learned, and what leadership structure will best position RE Sources to thrive in an ever-changing socio-political and funding landscape. We expect to finalize a decision by the end of the year, and we look forward to sharing more with our community including reflections on two years of co-leadership and what we’ve learned along the way.