Letter from Board of Directors

Dear Future Leaders in Action (FLIA) Community,

It is with a combination of gratitude and sadness that we announce Milly Seraus-Roache’s departure from her role as FLIA’s Executive Director, effective June 27, 2025. Over the past four years, it has been a pleasure to innovate, collaborate, grow and advance FLIA’s mission with Milly, as she led FLIA through our first leadership transition. 

As we now prepare for another transition, we want to take a moment to reflect on the impact that Milly has had on the organization during her tenure as Executive Director. We are incredibly proud to have supported Milly as she worked with 46 fellows across 24 different youth-focused organizations, initiated new revenue streams for FLIA, and developed a new tradition of creating space for our community to come together each December for trivia. We appreciate the innovation that Milly brought to expand upon FLIA’s foundation and look forward to continuing to build upon her work. 

Milly’s dedication to FLIA’s mission continues to show through her work and commitment to a smooth transition. Over the past several months, we have been working with Milly to ensure continuous operations, and we are initiating the  process of hiring a temporary Program Director who will run our 10-year anniversary grant program. We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis and will aim to have a final decision on hiring by July 15, 2025. Please find the job description here. To ensure the success of the Program Director, Milly has agreed to provide additional onboarding support when the Program Director begins.  

Over the next six months, we, as the Board of Directors, will leverage the learnings over the past ten years, feedback from alumni, fellows, partners, and other stakeholders to identify our plans to inform our Executive Director search. We are committed to uninterrupted programming and  to the community of fellows, partners, alumni and supporters that have made FLIA the organization it is today. 

As we are simultaneously celebrating our 10-year anniversary and navigating this transition, we have repeatedly returned to the importance of our “triple win” model: a win for fellows, partners, and the youth our partners serve. This serves as a guiding force as we navigate this transition and the future of FLIA. This quote from an alumni during a 10-year anniversary impact survey highlights this impact: “FLIA helped me get my foot into the door with the social sector. I was introduced to a local non-profit I had never heard of before. Fast forward, full circle I am now working with that same non-profit in a position that I absolutely love. At the time, I had no degree and FLIA also helped to get me into undergrad school. I obtained my social worker degree in 2022. FLIA helped give me the confidence and support navigating the social sector.”

We are excited for Milly’s next steps and look forward to continuing our relationships with her in a new capacity. Please read Milly’s letter here. If you have any questions about the transition or FLIA, please do not hesitate to reach out to our Board Chair Kirsten Abel (Kirsten@futureleadersinaction.org) or one of our alumni Board Members, Denisha Renovales (transition@futureleadersinaction.org). 

Sincerely, 

Future Leaders in Action’s Board of Directors