NTEN's mission to support those working to change the world but ensuring they can do so with strategic and racially equitable technology use has never been more relevant than the last couple of years. So, instead of a multi-year strategic plan that tries to foretell the future, NTEN uses the Real-Time Strategic Plan model, which focuses on clarifying what we do, how we do it, and what is most important to us in making decisions. As such, we've turned to the strategic questions and priority areas of our Real-Time Strategic Plan many times during the pandemic to help guide our thinking and decisions about our programs, our conference, and our advocacy efforts.
Critical to the success of our planning, decision-making, and vision of a better world is the team that regularly works together on all of it, including our Board of Directors. At NTEN, all board members come from the community - they have been part of sharing and learning like thousands of others. They have benefitted from our courses, earned their professional certificates, attended and spoken at the NTC, and volunteered for our on- and offline groups. Having board members who have experienced our mission from many different perspectives makes our work better and our meetings so much more fun.
We are excited to share that we've gained four new board members who will be part of these conversations with us! You can see the full board and everyone's biographies on the website. Below, we've included comments from Jude, Leon, Rubin, and Yesenia. We're thrilled they've joined the board!
I'm joining the board at NTEN because I believe in access to technology as a right, and NTEN's values and core beliefs reflect my own--especially that change happens when the entire sector comes together. I'm honored to collaborate with a wonderful team of board members to serve NTEN and its community.
I am humbled and excited to join the board of an organization I've respected and worked with over the past decade. NTEN has been instrumental in my learning and growth in the nonprofit technology sector as a trusted resource.
I've had the privilege to learn and share with the NTEN community for years and always appreciated the practical tools and resources they provided for nonprofits to thrive. What made NTEN different, though, was how they approached the accessibility and delivery of technology through a lens of racial equality and have cultivated a community of practitioners who feel the same. I am excited to join the board for an organization that practices its principles every day in real and non-performative ways and humbled to serve this community that has given me so much.
I am thrilled to join the NTEN board and repay all the blessings the organization has shared with me. I look forward to supporting NTEN's outstanding staff and engaging with members.
Amy Sample Ward
they/them
CEO, NTEN
Amy is driven by a belief that the nonprofit technology community can be a movement-based force for positive change. Their prior experience in direct service, policy, philanthropy, and capacity-building organizations has fueled Amy's work to create meaningful, inclusive, and compassionate community engagement and educational opportunities for organizations around the world. As the CEO of NTEN, Amy inspires the NTEN team and global partners to believe in community-generated change. Amy believes technology can help nonprofits reach their missions more effectively and equitably, but doing so takes intention and investment in training, access, and collaboration.
