Honoring a Visionary Leader: Uma Viswanathan’s Legacy at New Pluralists
by Liz Vogel
As Uma Viswanathan transitions out of her role as Executive Director on October 31, 2024, the New Pluralists team and I extend heartfelt gratitude for her leadership. I’m humbled to serve as Interim Executive Director and to help lead New Pluralists through this change.
I’ve worked closely with Uma over the last year, often shoulder to shoulder in Lyfts to airports or huddled between conference sessions in hotel hallways. I’ve learned so much from, and with, Uma, and I want to honor the power and richness of her contributions.
New Pluralists is strong because of Uma’s leadership. From an aspirational blueprint sketched by our funders and field leaders, Uma developed a vibrant, dynamic organization that has invested $30M+ towards tangible impact in a sector and culture hungry for a new way forward.
Leading New Pluralists in our early days required a founder’s mindset. Pluralism was a bold idea a step ahead of its time, but Uma was undaunted. She helped steer the organization through promising opportunities, navigate challenges, and shape dynamic strategies and structures that didn’t yet exist. (Read more about her most memorable accomplishments on Uma’s blog post.)
Anyone who has heard Uma share the five principles of pluralism that guide New Pluralists’ work understands that she embodies these principles in how she leads and how she lives. Uma stays rooted in what’s possible; she’s not naive to the scale of the challenges we face as a society, but, instead, she is clear-eyed about both the pragmatic and aspirational nature of what pluralism has to offer us.
Through her light touch, along with her appetite to discover, iterate, and learn together, Uma has established a solid foundation for New Pluralists. We’ve just completed a comprehensive strategic process to synthesize insights from our first three years and plan for transformational impact. Once again, Uma is one step ahead; she believes now is the time for new leadership to build off the momentum she helped generate and carry New Pluralists forward into our next chapter.
I am incredibly grateful to Uma for putting her heart, soul, and conviction into this work, including mentoring me over the last year. We will miss her daily presence, but we will keep her close. I look forward to walking alongside Uma and our entire New Pluralists community, serving as a bridge during this time of transition, and sharing more soon about what’s next.
