NELSONVILLE, Ohio — Jen Seifert parted ways with the Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program earlier this month after a six-year tenure as executive director.
“Executive Director Jen Seifert is no longer with the organization,” SAOP board president Rebekah Crawford confirmed in a written statement on July 15. “We appreciate her service to SAOP and our community, and we wish her well.”
Crawford said the rest of the organization’s “deeply experienced team remains.”
“SAOP leaders Denise O’Donnell, Co-Interim Director/Director of Finance, and Madison Trace, Co-Interim Director/Director of Operations, will guide our team and our services,” Crawford said.
Crawford’s statement did not indicate if Seifert left voluntarily or give a reason for Seifert’s departure. She declined to answer a follow-up question asking if Seifert’s departure was voluntary.
Seifert did not respond to a request for comment.
Crawford also declined to answer questions about whether several other members of SAOP’s leadership team remain employed at the organization.
Reagan Neviska, a former SAOP board member, told the Independent that “a lot of the staff people have left” the organization since she resigned from its board in November 2022.
Regardless, Crawford said SAOP will continue to implement its programs and serve its clients.
“Our intent to create transformational system change in violence prevention through innovative, trauma-informed public health and affordable housing solutions will continue without disruption,” Crawford said in her statement.
Some SAOP partners aren’t convinced.
“I don’t fully understand how they’re going to pick up the pieces of this yet,” said Jane Cavarozzi, who leads SAOP partners Dirty Girl Coffee and the Glouster Revitalization Organization. “I just need to know more about the future of our projects and the many, many overlaps we have, not just with Dirty Girl Coffee, but with Glouster Revitalization Organization, etc.”
Crawford said that in Seifert’s absence, SAOP “is fully committed to continuing its work on behalf of our clients and our community by providing support and critical resources to those experiencing violence. We soon will begin an intensive search for a new executive director.”
Cavarozzi said she hopes the organization can continue its work in Seifert’s absence.
“We’ve got a lot of things that are really important to our community intertwined with that organization,” said Cavarozzi. “I really, really want to see it be successful.”
Seifert’s departure from SAOP generated vastly different responses from those who worked closely with her.
Cavarozzi described Seifert as a “visionary” as well as a “competent, exceptional person.” She called Seifert’s departure a “surprising and sad development.”
Former SAOP board member Reagan Neviska, on the other hand, said that in its apparent decision to part ways with Seifert, “the board came to their senses in the end.”
Since November 2022, the Independent has investigated concerns over Seifert’s leadership of the nonprofit, including the workplace culture she cultivated and the rapidity of SAOP’s expansion. This included requesting and reviewing documents related to SAOP’s funding as well as numerous conversations, on and off the record, with SAOP leadership, several former SAOP employees, a former board member, and others with knowledge of the organization.
This is the first installment in a series, which will explore how SAOP transformed under Seifert’s leadership. The rest of the series will be published in the coming weeks.
Disclosure: Jen Seifert was the board president of Southeast Ohio Independent News, which publishes the Athens County Independent, from the board’s formation in August 2022 to January 2023. The author of this article and the Independent’s editor, Corinne Colbert, worked with Seifert directly. Members of the board have no control or influence over the newsroom’s editorial decisions or individual reporters.
Correction: A previous version of this story included a misspelling of Jane Cavarozzi’s name.
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