Dear Southface Community,
It is with humility, gratitude, and excitement that I share recent personnel updates regarding Southface’s leadership.
James Marlow, Southface’s leader since 2022, is stepping down and I, Nathan Bessette, will be serving as the Interim Executive Director for the next two years. I’d like to thank James for his past four years of leadership and our current Leadership Team for their support in this transition. James will continue his service to Southface as a Senior Advisor.
I have worked at Southface for nearly 6 years, serving in a variety of roles including most recently as the Vice President of Technical Services where I had the pleasure of leading our Design Consulting, Certifications, EarthCraft, BIT Building, Education, and GoodUse teams. The work of Southface matters to me because at Southface, we have the unique opportunity to protect our environment while achieving economic development and growth goals by making buildings better. As an Eagle Scout, mechanical engineer, entrepreneur, and champion for communities and the environment, there isn’t a better place to have impact than Southface.
Southface continues to have opportunity for significant impact, and I am honored to catapult the experience and expertise of our staff to scale our programs, services, and partnerships. Did you know that since our founding in 1978, Southface has trained more than 30,000 individuals, certified more than 65,000 homes and buildings as EarthCraft, advanced policy in 11 states, funded (with your support) more than 700 energy efficiency upgrades in nonprofit buildings across 33 states, and influenced the sustainability goals of nationally recognized developments including Serenbe, Ponce City Market, and Glenwood Park? Can you imagine adding a 0 to each of those metrics?
I want to invite you to stop by Southface to learn more about our current work and discuss your sustainability goals. I’m sure we can help and we’re eager to share some of the new initiatives we’re working on. I’d also like to invite you to subscribe to our newsletter if you haven’t already done so. We will share updates from some of our exciting projects, including stories from our BIT for Resilient HBCUs Fellows, upcoming events, and information about our soon-to-launch strategic plan.
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask for your support. These are incredibly challenging days for all nonprofits, but especially those working in service of families, communities, and our environment. We simply need more funding to maintain the impact we’ve achieved. Please let me know if we can discuss your giving goals and how Southface may help you experience the joy of giving through our work. Or, if you’re ready today, please use the “Donate Today” button below for quick access to our website’s donation page.
My vision for Southface is that we continue to have a positive influence on the communities we serve by making buildings better. We will continue to innovate programs, services, and policies to do that and will scale them by training individuals and small businesses throughout the region. My hope is that others will see this value and join us. As we like to say around the office, “if you have a building, we can help”! I look forward to seeing you as I get out in the community and engage directly with Southface’s stakeholders. We can’t thank you enough for your support!
Sincerely,
Nathan Bessette
(803) 981-2676
nbessette@southface.org
