A Message from CIRCLE Director Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg and Deputy Director Abby Kiesa

Friends and partners,

We’re writing to let you know that, after more than 15 years at CIRCLE, we will both be leaving the organization at the end of this calendar year.

It’s become a cliché to call professional departures bittersweet, but it could not be more true in this case. We are immensely proud of the systems change work we have led; the collaborative team we have helped build; and the knowledge we have co-created about the impact of young people as voters and leaders. We’re so gratified by all that CIRCLE has accomplished together with our partners, the CIRCLE advisory board, and the many colleagues and stakeholders who have joined us to support and situate young people as important actors in democracy.

Leaving is hard, but after long tenures at CIRCLE and our home institution Tisch College, we are ready to embrace new challenges. Though it may seem a bit unorthodox, we are transitioning out together so that two new, strong leaders committed to the resilience of youth-focused fields and accessible research, can take the organization to even greater heights. These new leaders will join an extraordinary team that has already spent years together conducting impactful work—and will continue to do so into the future. Their collective commitment to CIRCLE’s mission and values inspires us.

We are announcing our departure now, months before we plan to depart, so that we have plenty of time to continue to prepare the organization and support a smooth transition. The process to identify new CIRCLE leaders has already begun, and a national search will begin fully next month. In the coming weeks, we will share more details about that search and about our transition. We will be speaking to many of you directly, but we encourage you to reach out with any questions, concerns, or ideas. That includes potential recommendations, which can be shared with us or with Jen McAndrew, the Senior Director of Communications & Planning at Tisch College.

We will both spend these final months here overseeing CIRCLE’s work during this pivotal election cycle and guiding a successful transition. We are thankful to our team at CIRCLE, and at Tisch College and Tufts University, especially our Dean Dayna Cunningham and Associate Dean Peter Levine, who previously directed CIRCLE, for their ongoing support and leadership throughout that process. We’re also immensely grateful and indebted to many other colleagues and friends, past and present, who are too numerous to name now but who we have learned, strategized, and advocated with over many years. It has been an honor to stand with you.

Thank you, and you’ll hear more from us soon!