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Leadership Metro Richmond Names New President
Dr. Linda Powell Pruitt brings 30 years of organizational leadership experience to top LMR post
An educator, organizational consultant, psychotherapist and author whose three decades of clinical, academic, corporate and nonprofit work have focused on organizational life and leadership has been named as the new president of Leadership Metro Richmond.
A Chicago native and Richmond resident since 2004, Dr. Linda Powell Pruitt became the fourth LMR president in the organization’s 27 years beginning October 1, 2007.
“We are thrilled to welcome someone with the skills, experience and acumen that Dr. Powell Pruitt brings to Leadership Metro Richmond,” said Tom Mountcastle, former LMR board chair and chair of the search committee. “While we received a number of very qualified applicants for the post, Dr. Powell Pruitt distinguished herself by virtue of her versatile background and varied skills – all built on a rock-solid foundation of organizational development and leadership.”
A graduate of Northwestern University who received both her master’s degree and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from George Washington University, Dr. Powell Pruitt began her career in the non-profit sector, first at the Ecumenical Women’s Centers in Chicago and then at the Inter-Religious Foundation for Community Organizing/National Council of Churches and the North Star Fund, both in New York.
Moving into the corporate world, she served as a training manager for American Express International, management planning officer for Marine Midland Bank and consultant for both Corporate Education Resources and Triad Solutions. She also served as president of Resources for Change, a Philadelphia-based organizational consultant to non-profit organizations.
Dr. Powell Pruitt also has along history in front of the classroom. She has served on the faculty at VCU’s School of Education, NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service, City University of New York, Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, Teachers College at Columbia University and the Department of Psychology at George Washington University.
She has co-edited two books, including Off-White: Readings on Power, Privilege and Resistance, and authored numerous journal articles, monographs and book chapters.
Along the way, Dr. Powell Pruitt founded Powell Pruitt Associates, serving as an independent consultant to organizations and individuals, with special emphasis on schools, churches and communities seeking transformational change.
“I have had the good fortune to work across this country and abroad, within corporate and nonprofit settings, and this cross-pollination has led to deeper understandings about human nature and how leadership really works,” said Dr. Powell Pruitt. “I am truly excited by this extraordinary opportunity to lead an organization that has contributed so much to the Richmond community, and I look forward to helping our region grow and reach its full potential.”
“For an organization that is so rich in personalities and ambition, there is something comforting and perhaps appropriate about having a trained clinical psychologist as our new president,” said Reginald E. Gordon, LMR board chair. “And yet, it is her impressive background in organizational development and leadership that we believe will make her an outstanding new president. While she has large shoes to fill, we have every confidence that Dr. Powell Pruitt will help take LMR to new heights.”
Dr. Powell Pruitt is married to Rev. Canon Dr. Alonzo Pruitt. The couple resides in Richmond.
Leaders as Champions
“Embedded in the leverage
points that all smart communities do – investing
right the first, working together, building on strengths, practicing democracy,
preserving the past, growing leaders, inventing the future – are
champions that made them a reality.”
So says Suzanne Morse, the president of the Pew Partnership for Civic Change. To read more of her speech, “Leaders as Champions” download it here. For more of Suzanne’s thoughts, check out her blog here.
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