LHF’s Michele Prichard Announces Retirement

Throughout her 34 years at Liberty Hill, Michele Prichard has held a variety of roles, including leading the Foundation as its Executive Director for several years and currently serving as Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives for our Environmental Health & Justice program.

As Michele prepares for her retirement this summer, we recognize and celebrate her outstanding work, legacy and dedication to environmental justice and the Los Angeles Community. Thank you, Michele, for making Liberty Hill a “home” for many and for your work in transforming L.A. into a place where justice and compassion can prevail.

Happy retirement!

A Message from Michele Prichard to the Liberty Hill Community:

“Wherever you have received much love, that is your home.” 
–Tibetan saying

Today, I am writing to announce that I am completing my staff service at the Liberty Hill Foundation after 34 years of incredible and inspiring work with all of you.  

Liberty Hill has truly been my home.  It is indeed the place where I have received so much love, friendship, and purpose over most of my adult working years.

I began service on Liberty Hill’s Community Funding Board (CFB) in 1984 as a volunteer, connecting with social movement leaders across the region who were organizing on critical issues that now define today’s progressive agenda in Los Angeles.  I served on Liberty Hill’s Board of Directors as the CFB representative from 1987-1989, working alongside the founders and visionaries of the Foundation whose spirit continues to undergird our mission and programs. 

Joining as Executive Director in 1989, I worked with our tiny staff, committed board, and engaged social activists to nurture the “foundation” for a new Los Angeles.  We developed new grantmaking, training and fundraising programs focused on poverty, race and environmental health.  In 1997, I turned over the reins to new and dynamic leaders—Torie Osborn, Kafi Blumenfield, and now Shane Murphy Goldsmith—yet continued to dig in and find new ways to serve our founding motto of "Change, Not Charity."

I am awed by the impact that Liberty Hill is now delivering for Los Angeles—even while our urgent social and environmental needs cry out for even bigger, systemic solutions.  But the time has come for me to seek new pathways. While it might be called “retirement,” I prefer to think of it as an “evolution” to a new stage of being and doing, continuing the connection that I have experienced over these many years in new and undiscovered ways.

Liberty Hill will always be my home.  It has given me love and the belief in the promise of collective passion to make change against daunting odds.  

My hope is that you will continue to make Liberty Hill your “home” and transform our City of Angels into a place where justice and compassion prevail.

With gratitude,

Michele Prichard
Senior Director for Strategic Initiatives
Liberty Hill Foundation