Environmental Works Selects Jess Zimbabwe as Executive Director

We are pleased to announce that Environmental Works has selected Jess Zimbabwe as the next Executive Director, effective October 26, 2020.
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Jess has an extensive background in design, planning, and nonprofit management. She is currently the Principal of Plot Strategies. Until recently she served for ten years as the founding Director of the Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership, a partnership of the National League of Cities and the Urban Land Institute. Before that, Jess led the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, and served as Community Design Director at Urban Ecology in Oakland. 

​She serves on the boards of Next City, the National Main Street Center, and Colloqate. 

She is a licensed architect, certified city planner, and LEED-Accredited Professional, as well as a member of the urban planning faculties at Georgetown University and the University of Washington.

Jess’s unique expertise in architecture, nonprofit leadership, and public service will contribute immensely to Environmental Works, and they are thrilled to welcome her to the team.

A Message from Jess Zimbabwe:

“I am excited and humbled by the opportunity to serve at Environmental Works Community Design Center. The present pandemic and its concomitant recession have laid bare the inequalities and structural racism that have long shaped our communities. This moment demands empathic, just, and sustainable design solutions like no other.  When we emerge from this recession, huge swaths of our region will still be under-served by shared spaces and public facilities; BIPOC communities across the state will still face disinvestment and displacement pressures; thousands of nonprofits will need help to radically re-imagine how they deliver services and bring their people together; and our region will still be in the throes of a devastating housing affordability crisis. Roger Tucker has built and led a powerhouse team of talented architects and landscape architects at EW who are poised to deliver impactful solutions to these challenges and more.

It is an honor to serve a board, staff, and clients who are so passionate about participatory design and its role in creating spaces that dignify and nurture, undo social inequalities, and fight climate change. Broadening the conversation around design and land use decision-making is a crucial step towards healing divisions in urban, suburban, and rural communities throughout the state. The EW team is also committed to building a more just, inclusive, and equitable practice inside the organization, and in our broader professional fields.  I look forward to getting started with a lot of deep listening work with existing and new partners, to see what more we can do to create communities in Washington State where everyone can thrive for generations to come. I can’t wait to get started.” 

About the Environmental Works

Environmental Works Community Design Center is a 501(c)3 nonprofit community-based architectural firm, founded to provide professional architectural, landscape architecture, and planning services to nonprofit organizations, municipal agencies, and otherwise under-represented communities throughout Washington State. Since our founding in 1970, we have provided feasibility/pre-development studies and complete architectural services for human services agencies, community facilities, affordable housing providers, and public art projects.
Working in both the public and private sectors, the staff of Environmental Works understand the need for community involvement, the impacts of having multiple funding sources, and ways of working effectively with pre-established budgets.

Environmental Works is committed to creating quality architecture and landscape architecture and sustainable communities, while making effective use of capital funds. We work to ensure that the ultimate social purpose of the building is well-served in each architectural design. In addition, Environmental Works has a long-standing commitment to socially and environmentally sustainable design and has developed a number of successful strategies for designing ecologically thoughtful and affordable buildings and sites. These strategies are based on three core issues: conserving resources, promoting local economies (human, material and natural) and the careful adaptation of a building to both the natural and cultural conditions of the site.

About Valtas Group

Valtas Group works as Interim Executive Directors, supporting organizations in times of transition and helps organizations navigate uncertainty during leadership change.  
 
Valtas Group also leads the search process in partnership with the board and staff leadership, as consultants for recruiting and search to support organizations identify the ideal Executive Director or leader.
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Valtas Group partners with board members and senior nonprofit leaders on a variety of strategic consulting assignments. Valtas Group has a variety of comprehensive resources to guide your transition needs.  Contact us to learn about executive interim and placement services.