Dear Altar Valley Friends,
I am writing today with news of changes within the Altar Valley Conservation Alliance (AVCA) staff. This month, we bid farewell to our long-time Program Administrator Sherie Steele, the Alliance’s first employee. Sherie helped to shape the Alliance into the professional organization that it is today. We will miss Sherie and are grateful for her hard work and dedication over the last decade!
AVCA launched in the fall of 1995, and the organization’s 25th birthday is rapidly approaching. As this milestone nears, we’re thinking hard about what it will take to continue conserving the Altar Valley for future generations over the next 25 years! We are crafting the Altar Valley Watershed Plan with our partners to guide on-the-ground projects; and we are also working internally to assure that the Alliance organization is ready for this exciting work. A critical aspect of this is succession planning and cultivating future generations of leaders.
In this vein, we are proud to announce that Sarah King will now serve as the Alliance’s Executive Director. Sarah has worked for AVCA since 2010 and has built our community outreach program from scratch. She lives and works at the Anvil Ranch in the Altar Valley. She is the first rancher to serve on the Board of the Friends of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. She’s active in county and state aspects of the Arizona Farm Bureau and the Arizona Cattle Growers’ Association. She is a positive, practical person who believes in and models the good work that can be done through collaborative conservation.
It is our hope that you will find this transition to be seamless. Julia Sittig has been promoted to a new position called the Conservation and Science Director, to reflect her significant responsibility and abilities in managing collaborative projects. Mary Miller will occupy a new position called the Operations Director that will provide financial, organizational and strategic planning support to the organization. Sarah will continue to manage community outreach activities. This year, in partnership with the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, AVCA will be hiring a Field Technician, which is a positive step towards building a more robust staff. Robert Davis and the Quiet Creek Corporation will continue to manage the growing Altar Valley Geographic Information System program.
On a personal note, the 25 years I’ve spent on behalf of the AVCA thus far has been amazing ~ a source of friendship, learning, and challenge. As many of you know, I love this work and I’m ever so proud of what we are accomplishing in the Altar Valley. My aim going forward is to take a small step back, but to continue to provide strength and stability to our efforts. I have enormous faith in the AVCA team and our fantastic partners. Many thanks to all of you for your support during the first quarter of a century of Alliance work in the Altar Valley!
Happy New Year!
Mary Miller