Interactive Resource Center names new executive director

Michelle Kennedy

Michelle Kennedy comes to the IRC with more than a decade of experience advocating for and collaborating with low-income individuals and families. Her work has included helping families stay together, advocating for healthy and energy-efficient affordable homes, and helping broaden access to healthcare. Board Chair Bob Newton says, "The Board of Directors looks forward to working with Michelle. She will be an effective leader of the IRC and a passionate advocate for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in Guilford County. "

Kennedy replaces founding Executive Director Liz Seymour who retires from the IRC at the end of June. Kennedy currently serves as Interim Executive Director at Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) in Los Angeles, California, a social justice organization in
South Central Los Angeles. While at SAJE she developed a pilot program with the LA Department of Public Health, implemented a partnership with a federally-qualified nonprofit health center utlilizing a mobile health clinic to provide free healthcare and doctor-led house calls to homeless populations and those living in substandard housing conditions, and helped to organize community engagement actions that led to the passage of an LA city council moratorium on fracking and oil extraction. Prior to assuming the position at SAJE, Kennedy helped develop and implement the Greensboro Housing Coalition's Advancing Safe and Healthy Homes Initiative and has worked with the NC State Energy Office, the Guilford Center and Habitat for Humanity. In the weeks after Hurricane Katrina she took a leave of absence from her work as a Program Manager at Methodist Home for Children to be part of a team dispatched to begin the re-housing and re-building
efforts in Louisiana.

"I am thrilled to be joining the team at the Interactive Resource Center," Kennedy said. "The work that is being done at the IRC to help people who are experiencing homelessness is not only essential to individual success but the future success of our entire community. I look forward to sustaining and growing the critical work of the IRC. "

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- press release