News

Textbox Section

Foundation for Excellence new board member Stephanie Hoffman!

The Kalamazoo Foundation for Excellence (FFE) made a great choice for their board by appointing Stephanie Hoffman, Executive Director of Open Doors Kalamazoo and co-chair of the ISAAC & TRHT Housing Task Force.  Stephanie’s insights from her long experience at Open Doors–including running Next Door, the first home for homeless women in Kalamazoo—will be enormously helpful to FFE’s ability to reach its goals, particularly these two:
[su_list icon=”icon: check” icon_color=”#9602ca”]

  • Housing for All: Building and preserving affordable housing in Kalamazoo
  • Shared Prosperity: Supporting programs to help all Kalamazoo residents succeed
[/su_list] Open Doors won the “ISAAC Ally of the Year Award” at our Banquet a year ago. As we said then about Stephanie Hoffman, “She is a Culturally Competent Agent of Change who helps our most vulnerable, most silenced and most forgotten community members feel worthy of dignity, respect and love. …She works to help address barriers and obstacles so that people are empowered to live their best purpose-filled life and to be able to reach their full potential as productive citizens.”

The members of the FFE Board, which include several others with ISAAC connections, are:

[su_list icon=”icon: user-circle” icon_color=”#9602ca”]
  • Angela Graham-Williams, President
  • James K. Ritsema, Vice President
  • Adam McFarlin, Treasurer
  • Barbara Hamilton-Miller, Secretary
  • David Anderson
  • Sandra Calderon-Huezo
  • Alisa Carrel
  • Nathan Dannison
[/su_list]
[su_list icon=”icon: user-circle” icon_color=”#9602ca”]
  • Jeanne Hess
  • Stephanie Hoffman
  • Rachel Lonberg
  • Alice Taylor
  • Charlene Taylor
  • Jack C. Urban
  • Von Washington, Jr.
  • Bobby J. Hopewell, Emeritus
[/su_list]

We couldn’t be more pleased that Stephanie Hoffman has been chosen to help lead the work of the Foundation for Excellence toward its vision:

“Imagine a vibrant, prosperous, and equitable city, where people want to live, work, and raise families. Imagine being a more beautiful and livable city each year, more innovative and connected. Imagine having more jobs and less poverty, and providing young people with the jump-starts they need in life.”

– Elder Doug King, President, Dr. Charlae Davis, Executive Director, Tobi Hanna-Davies, Housing Task Force co-chair with Stephanie Hoffman