West Sacramento, Calif. — Rural Community Assistance Corporation’s Board of Directors elected Vickie Oldman, of New Mexico, as Board President at its November meeting. Ms. Oldman joined the RCAC board in May 2010.
The board also elected the following new board officers: Frank Bravo of California is vice-president; Marty Miller of Washington is secretary; and Claudia O’Grady of Utah is treasurer.
Ms. Oldman is a founding and managing partner with Seven Sisters Community Development Group, LLC, a national community development consulting firm. She is an enrolled member of the Diné (Navajo) Tribe, and her clans are Black Streak of the Forest People, Mud People, One Who Walks Around People, and Folding Arm People. Vickie specializes in culturally relevant approaches to organizational development. She has more than 23 years of expertise in strategic planning, board development, leadership training, team building, asset building, and executive coaching to Native and rural communities. She is recognized nationally as a skilled facilitator, trainer and speaker. Vickie has been an organizational development capacity coach for various foundations. While working with foundations, she partners with grantees on environmental issues, social services, housing, and community and economic development. As a capacity coach, she supports leaders as they embrace their strengths; and she helps groups to clarify and align how they can gain a clear vision and strategies while leveraging existing resources.
RCAC board members serve three-year terms and may remain on the board for up to four consecutive terms. Ms. Oldman replaces outgoing board president Nalani Fujimori Kaina, who is the executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, Hawaii’s oldest and largest statewide nonprofit organization providing free civil legal services to the poor. Ms. Kaina joined Legal Aid in 1999 as a staff attorney on the island of Moloka`i. She is a commissioner on the Access to Justice Commission, a past president and current director of Hawaii Women Lawyers, a member of the ACLU of Hawaii’s Litigation Committee, and the chair of the Hawaii State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. Ms. Kaina will remain on the board until her term ends in 2022.
Founded in 1978, RCAC provides training, technical and financial resources and advocacy so rural communities can achieve their goals and visions. RCAC serves rural and Indigenous communities in 13 western states and Pacific islands. Services are available to communities with populations of fewer than 50,000, other nonprofit groups, Tribal organizations, farmworkers, colonias and other specific populations. RCAC staff provides direct services in collaboration with local and community partnerships in three program areas: affordable housing, environmental services, and lending. About RCAC
Media contact:
Julia Helmreich, Director
Communications, Development & Events
(916) 447-9832 ext.
jhelmreich@rcac.org
