PSE is Growing…Again!

The Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE) continues to grow and welcome new leaders joining us in the racial equity movement – and in truly great moments, we have occasion to celebrate leaders who have grown with PSE and carried the baton with us for a time, and whose work now launches them beyond PSE into new avenues.

I am proud of the legacy PSE is creating through our leaders – past, current, and future – who work where they are to progress the racial equity movement far beyond what anyone organization could hope to achieve alone.

It is therefore bittersweet to share the news that Chandra Farley, our Just Energy Director, will be leaving her role with the Partnership for Southern Equity on August 21.

With Chandra’s leadership, our Just Energy team has achieved what remains some of PSE’s greatest successes, including facilitating the creation of the Just Energy Circle, a formidable coalition of “uncommon allies” whose advocacy for energy equity in the South continues to position this as a primary topic for our communities and the entire nation. In concert with these aims, the Just Energy Academy, now preparing for the graduation of its third cohort in August, is raising up community leaders where they are needed most.

We will deeply miss Chandra on the PSE team, but also know that she has laid a strong foundation for PSE’s energy equity work that will flourish in the next chapter of our Just Energy team.

On that note, I am pleased to announce that Cicely Garrett, an accomplished Racial Equity Consultant, will join PSE on August 16 as Interim Just Energy Director.

Cicely has worked with organizations spanning the South’s equity movement, including Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative, Atlanta Community Food Bank, Common Market SE, EcoWomanist Institute, Georgia Tech, National Black Food and Justice Alliance, New GA Project’s Black + Green Agenda, and United Way of Greater Atlanta.

Most recently, Cicely worked with Southface Institute as the designated equity consultant on the City of Atlanta’s Decarbonization Roadmap.

Of special note is Cicely’s experience spearheading the production of Resilient Atlanta and the transition of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability to Office of Resilience under the 100 Resilient Cities program pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation to respond to urbanization, globalization, and climate change in metro areas.

As the City of Atlanta’s Interim Chief Resilience Officer, Cicely led the effort for Atlanta’s successful application for the American Cities Climate Challenge and introduced “Clean Energy Atlanta: A Vision for a 100% Clean Energy Future” for adoption by the Atlanta City Council.

Cicely was awarded the Outstanding Atlanta Community Service Award in 2014 and Creative Loafing‘s Neighborhood MVP in 2015.

I remain thankful that PSE has a continuously growing, robust network of extraordinarily talented people who are ready to move the work forward with us. Thank you, Chandra, for your time and contributions to PSE during so many of our pivotal and formative moments. As we embark on the next steps in PSE’s journey, I look forward to working with Cicely and undertaking the search for our next permanent Just Energy Director.

Together we prosper,
Nathaniel Q. Smith, Jr.
Founder and Chief Equity Officer