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Krish O’Mara Vignarajah
//May 14, 2021
Krish O’Mara Vignarajah
President and CEO
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS)
The past year has made us all face change in ways we did not know were possible. What are the tools you use to embrace change and to help your team navigate that change with you? What are you doing to lead important change in your organization and/or Maryland?
Empathy. Our world is in a distressing place with the pandemic, of course, but also with racial tensions, climate disasters and polarizing politics. At LIRS, we have tried to acknowledge these difficulties and to place our work in context, grounding us through our shared mission of welcoming vulnerable immigrants and refugees.
Leading with empathy is, now more than ever, crucial to understanding what staff need to feel supported and empowered in and beyond the virtual office to both continue towards our organizational goals and remain receptive to new growth and opportunity.
The past year has not only been challenging with COVID but we have also faced race and dis- crimination challenges and realities as a state and a country. How do you establish a strategy for diversity, equity and inclusion in your organization and how do you use your influential voice to help others understand the importance?
As a woman of color and as the only female head of a refugee resettlement agency, inclusion is always top of mind for me by necessity. But the world we’re living in today has made it feel all the more urgent.
