Building Our Best Board
Image description: The NAAFA Board, 2023. Left to right: Amanda Cooper, Dawn Clark, Tigress Osborn, Trevor Kezon, Christina Chase, Darliene Howell, Tamra Dozier-Garland (not pictured: Marcy Cruz, Tegan Lecheler, and Elaine Lee)
By Tigress Osborn, Executive Director of NAAFA
When NAAFA turned 50 in 2019, there were three people on the Board of Directors. We had operated as this small crew for a while, with no response to calls for new board members. We focused on building an inspiring 50th Anniversary Conference, knowing it would either be the end of an era or it would launch us into the next 50 years.
The conference did inspire people, both veteran members and fresh recruits to the cause. We created the Future of NAAFA Committee, which began to envision ways to build on the best of our legacy while becoming more meaningful and relevant to a wider cross-section of people. But there were still just three of us on the board; as that fledgling committee was getting started, the entire world changed around us because of COVID-19. Suddenly, we needed community more than ever! Anti-fatness was even more life or death as the pandemic exacerbated economic disparity and impacted already-limited access to equitable medical care for fat people. The three of us were more at risk personally, too, and we knew that it was important to have a bigger team if we wanted NAAFA to survive.
We went into recruitment mode just weeks after the 2020 shut down. As we were taking applications, global protests in opposition to racist police terrorism in the US rocked the pandemic-stricken world. We prioritized bringing in new board members who would share our intersectional commitments and help us expand them. Four people answered the call for new NAAFA leaders (three of them had been at NAAFA50).
That fall, our new board members settled in slowly due to the pandemic and the Presidential election. I was named Chair-elect, but I got COVID at Christmas, adding to the slow start. But once we got going, there was no stopping us! We revamped our communications, expanded virtual programming, and increased outreach to other fat lib and social justice groups. We attracted new participants and rejuvenated others.
By the time we got to our next board search in the fall of 2021, we’d built even more new excitement about NAAFA. Ten people completed the application process, plus we got to know many other people as they considered applying. In January 2022, six new people joined the board, and several more became volunteers or supporters in other ways. We did not recruit new board members in the fall of 2022, opting instead to focus on developing existing relationships, and improving our infrastructure to ensure NAAFA’s future stability. Now, in the fall of 2023, we have a new structure that includes an Executive Director (me) and a plan to expand staffing over the next few years. We’re looking for new leaders who will help us continue on this path.
Today’s NAAFA Board is an exciting collection of fat people who represent a spectrum of plus sizes, several identities within the LGBTQIA+ community, and more racial diversity than ever seen on the NAAFA board. The age span is 24-69. They have lived experience with disability and chronic illness, a variety of class backgrounds and experiences, and professional skills and insights from numerous fields.
The best board for NAAFA is a board that represents a wide variety of fat lives. We look forward to adding even more diverse voices to our team as we receive the rest of this year’s board applications (as of this writing, we’ve got 10 and counting!). To learn more about what we’re looking for, visit naafa.org/boardsearch. Applications are due by 10/31.
Of course, even the strongest board can accomplish more when they have the resources to do it. Increasing funding for fat liberation is essential to the strength of our organization and of our entire movement. You don’t have to wait until our 2024 board members are announced to support the work they will do for size freedom and more. Invest in NAAFA’s future by giving today or becoming a monthly donor!
Photo of Tigress Osborn
About the Author
Prior to being appointed the first Executive Director of NAAFA in over two decades, Tigress served as Board Chair and Director of Community Outreach. As leader of the most diverse board in NAAFA’s 54-year history, Tigress championed an intersectional approach to fighting anti-fatness through education, advocacy, and support. Her work with NAAFA has been featured in USA Today, Huffington Post, and Newsweek, and heard on BBC AntiSocial and ABC News. Tigress also hosts and produces the NAAFA Webinar Series, which features a wide variety of activists, scholars, and artists from fat community. Tigress founded Full Figure Entertainment in 2008 in Oakland, CA, and co-founded the PHX Fat Force in AZ in 2019. Tigress is a Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) consultant and educator whose clients have ranged from major tech companies to small non-profits. She is a two-time women's college graduate with a BA in Black Studies from Smith College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. Follow Tigress @iofthetigress on your favorite social media.