Introducing AFG’s New Co-Executive Directors: Welcome Chantal & Linda
Dear AFG Community,
A few weeks ago, we shared that after much consideration and staff and board discussions, AFG was moving into a Co-Executive Director model. Today, we are excited to announce that Chantal Hildebrand and Linda Lu will serve as our inaugural Co-Executive Directors! We couldn’t be more proud to welcome two incredible women of color who bring their unique expertise, lived experiences, and community-driven approach to AFG’s work.
While Chantal and Linda have already officially started working together in their new roles last week, they are eager to truly dive into the work. In addition, there will be plenty of upcoming opportunities to get to know Chantal and Linda, but here is a little background of each of them.
Chantal (she/her) has been a trusted member of the AFG leadership team for nearly 3 years, most recently serving as our Deputy Director. Her portfolio included overseeing organizational strategy and budgeting, as well as our programmatic and advocacy work. Prior to her time with AFG, she advanced equity through community mobilization, capacity building, and program management through international and California-based programming.
Linda (she/her) founded Evaluation Studio, a long-time research and evaluation partner of AFG, and many of AFG’s member organizations, specializing in feminist and decolonized research focusing on intergenerational communities and youth of color. Since late 2018, AFG has partnered closely with Evaluation Studio on the majority of its research and evaluation projects, from design and implementation of external projects to the internal evaluation of events, trainings, and AFG’s membership model. Linda brings extensive experience in research and evaluation design and analysis, strategic planning and creative facilitation.
We know so many of you deeply care about AFG and are excited about today’s news! We are excited to celebrate with you. As Chantal and Linda take the helm, we want to make sure they feel the support of the AFG family. Please share our social media posts and leave encouraging words for Chantal and Linda in a quote!
The selection of Chantal and Linda and the integration of Evaluation Studio with Alliance for Girls creates new opportunities for AFG to better support the girls and gender-expansive youth-serving community through more youth-driven research that sparks girl and gender-expansive youth-centered advocacy. In the coming months, we’ll share more about the new AFG team members, our three-year 2024-2027 strategic plan, and how it charts a course for our collective future.
We look forward to this next wave of AFG’s evolution under Chantal and Linda’s leadership, and we thank AFG’s Co-Founder and Founding Executive Director, Emma Mayerson, for laying a strong foundation. We also want to thank AFG’s board for guiding the process and leaning into AFG’s values to make this important shift.
Disrupting dominant culture norms in non-profit leadership takes bold, unapologetic, fearless leaders and we have that in Chantal and Linda. The future of Alliance for Girls is bright and we cannot wait to see what’s to come.
In gratitude,
The Alliance for Girls Team
