Special Thank You to Terri Leon & Staff Transition

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It is bittersweet to share that our long-time senior program officer, Terri Leon, decided earlier this year to retire from Piper Trust. While Terri’s retirement comes sooner than anyone might anticipate, she has big plans ahead to contribute in new ways to the community and state that she loves.

I want to take this opportunity to shine a light on Terri for a moment, and say thank you for all she has done—so far—to foster health and well-being for individuals and organizations throughout this community. A champion for equal access to education—this is often what comes to mind when we hear Terri's name. Terri served for more than 30 years in leadership roles at Friendly House, and in educational institutions where she was dedicated to strengthening student achievement and parent engagement. She built community bridges that still stand today. There’s no doubt why she was selected for so many awards over the years such as the Pete C. Garcia Victoria Foundation Educational Diversity Award, the Profiles of Success Raul Yzaguirre Community Leadership Award, and the Cox Communications Hispanic Heritage Leadership Award. She was even named a Piper Fellow in 2007!

On behalf of Piper Trust, we commend and thank Terri for her dedication and care of the grants and programs she stewarded. She is a treasured colleague and we will miss her very much. However, she remains our friend and we look forward to seeing the next impacts she will make—and we’ll cheer her on!

Piper Trust program staff will be in touch with grantee organizations about who their new Trust contact will be (effective December 16, 2019). We sincerely thank Terri for giving the Trust ample time to transition her grant and project portfolio—she has been gracious and invaluable.

With warmest regards,

Mary Jane Rynd
President and CEO