Farewell to Avi Green

Dear SSN Community,

I write to share the news that Avi Green has decided to leave his position as SSN’s Executive Director after seven years of service.  

I am very grateful for Avi's leadership and dedication to building the Scholars Strategy Network. During his time at SSN, he grew our network and made SSN a leader in the movement to transform researchers into savvy policy players. With thoughtfulness, strategic insight, and hard work, Avi connected our chapters and members to policymakers, civic leaders, and journalists across the nation. Under his management, SSN built important relationships with fellow policy and research-oriented organizations, as well as individual leaders in the policy realm. Together with Avi, we helped researchers have an impact on a wide range of issues, including paid family leave, housing discrimination, Medicaid, and voting rights and student voting, to name a few. We are grateful for the creativity, integrity, and resourcefulness that Avi brought to SSN. While we are sad to see him go, I hope you will join me in thanking Avi for all he has done to leave us on a strong footing for the future and wishing him all the best in his next steps.

As the election approaches, the nation copes with the pandemic, and professors and students get ready for a very different academic year, I am more determined than ever that SSN continues its work of helping researchers improve policy and strengthen democracy.

What’s next? The Scholars Strategy Network will continue to pursue our mission, grow, and evolve. With leadership from me as SSN's Director, newly appointed Acting Executive Director Paola Maynard-Moll, our Steering Committee, our wonderful staff, and most of all, our chapter leaders and members across the nation, we will keep building a culture where research regularly informs policy at every level. I thank you all for your continued efforts at a challenging moment for academia and a crucial juncture for American democracy.  

Theda

Theda Skocpol
Director, Scholars Strategy Network
Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology
Harvard University