A Transition In Leadership

On behalf of the Re-Member Board of Directors, and because you have been an integral part of my Re-Member experience, I wanted to share some important news. After five fun, challenging, and at times unimaginable years as Executive Director, I will be stepping down at the end of this year in order to pursue other personal and professional opportunities. When I do, I am thrilled to announce that William Paese, my colleague and friend, has been chosen as Re-Member’s next Executive Director. He will assume the position on January 1, 2024. Will serves now as our Operations Manager and was the unanimous choice of the Board of Directors, to whom he will report.

Will working alongside Kristin Skantze at the Feather II gardens

Like me, Will first came to Re-Member as a volunteer. As many of you have experienced, people are drawn here for all sorts of reasons and almost imperceptibly, a bond to Pine Ridge Reservation and its people takes up residence somewhere deep inside us. It’s hard to explain, but the connection is real. It brings moments of challenge, but also great gratification that I suspect will be hard for me to find in whatever endeavor comes next. I already see a similar connection forming between Will, this place and the Oglala Lakota people whom we learn from, and serve alongside.

Some of you know Will already. All of you will get to know him more in the years ahead. We plan to offer you more opportunities to get to know Will this year, and will share those details in the coming months. 

Will first visited Re-Member with a group from the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a student-volunteer in 2015. He drove to Pine Ridge with 10 fellow students. His first job was to help dig a six-foot hole to install an outhouse. Over that week, his observations and conversations created a nagging discomfort that made it hard to walk away, and he has been connected in some way ever since. Will came back repeatedly as a Program Supervisor, and quickly became someone that we wanted to stay longer, and longer. Eventually, he stopped leaving. He joined us full-time in the spring of 2020.

Just like so many volunteers who come to Pine Ridge and experience our program here at Re-Member, Will has become a builder – of things and relationships. As he gets ready to take on the Executive Director’s many responsibilities, he will be tasked with building deeper networks, new revenue sources, expanded volunteer programs, and ongoing dialogue and collaboration with the Oglala Lakota Nation. His experience, his personality, and his passion for Re-Member, and the Oglala Lakota people will serve him well.

This is not a goodbye for me. There is so much work to do as Will and I dive ever deeper in the planning for this 25th anniversary year, the progress towards further developing Feather II, and the day-to-day effort of serving the people and building a better today here on Pine Ridge.

Although I will be moving on, Re-Member will remain an important part of my life. As my predecessor Ted Skantze has supported me, I will do the same for Will, in whatever way I can, as I know you will too. Together, we are all Re-Member.

Will and I look forward to seeing many of you in the year ahead. We remain grateful, as always, for your continued and generous support.

With gratitude,

Cory True
Executive Director