December 30, 2023

Dear Friends,

While working from the #Cleveland Office today this photograph caught my attention and brought a lump to my throat. Sometimes it is hard to believe how quickly my three decades as part of the IPM Family have gone—let alone that we #IPM will celebrate 50 years in 2024!

This photo was captured approximately seventeen months into my tenure as IPM’s Chief Executive. Many of those in the photo have since passed and those of us “still around” have aged in our own ways. I miss each of these folks daily—especially Paul Strege, Sammy Mayer, David Westcott, and Jan Bullard—as they were all crucial to IPM’s founding and/or our headquarters relocation to my hometown in 2001. 

IPM’s founding commitment to socio-economic #justice is literally lived out photographically with representation from across class, faith, gender, ethnicity, and race. Our founding dedication to a culture of belonging may be less obvious, but imagine that the folks in this photo ranged from in their 30’s to their 70’s and that they had lived &/or worked in (at least): Bosnia i Herzegovina, Chile, #ElSalvador, #India, #Italy, Lebanon, Japan, #Kenya, #Nicaragua, Russia, and across the USA.  Collectively we spoke some twenty languages. 

We gathered for this meeting at David’s home Congregation on the southwest side of Cleveland as we transitioned from one African American Board Chair, who had served as a longstanding Project Coordinator in Saint Louis, to another who was the first #Black Woman to be the Vice President of a major bank in Ohio. Increasingly (even in 2002) the Board was composed of current or former Project Coordinators and, in this photo alone, IPM Project Partners from every continent but Antarctica were represented. 

I write all this not to gloat but to remind us of not only how far we have come but of how IPM has always flourished at the forefront of change. We were “international” before almost any entity other than the United Nations truly was. We were “multi-faith” when most folks had barely heard of the term ecumenical. We were led by a Black woman of working-class roots when wealthy white women had barely gained a footing in non-profit #leadership. We were, and are in fact, living out “#diversity, #equity, and #inclusion” three decades before most folks had even heard the phrase!

The past few pandemic-years have been life-altering for so many, not the least of which IPM and our Project Partners. 2023 saw IPM rebound significantly with the increasing return of our in-person #Immersion Experience Program and the expansion of IPM’s #International #Fellows. We are thrilled to be celebrating our 50^th Anniversary and look forward to the promise of the next 50 years. But most especially, as I reflect on another New Year with IPM, I am humbled to carry on this work with all of you in the memory of the many giants who have gone before us. Their example continues to inspire, and their spirit lives on in all we do. 

Thank you for all you do and Happy New Year!

Peace, Joe