Friends,

It's with a great sense of peace, hope and excitement that I share with you all that we are welcoming Amy Sabin as MVM's new Executive Director.

Back in December the My Voice Music staff and board started conversations about what hiring for a new Executive Director would look like. We knew this was not something we wanted to rush into and luckily Ian left MVM in such a stable place with such a strong team that this was possible. We all knew that replacing Ian would be impossible.

We decided to start by hiring a temporary Transition Project Manager, Rebecca Koon, to help with the day to day operations work that Ian had done. Rebecca turned out to be a great fit and came on as our Operations Manager on August 1, thanks to a grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust, funding the first year of this position. Having Rebecca in place gave us the space to really focus on what we were looking for in MVM's next leader. This process was emotional and challenging for all of us.

The day Ian died our then 6-year-old son Jude asked me who would be in charge of My Voice Music now. In the days and weeks following he had various suggestions for the selection process including "whoever could catch a scorpion in a box first" and "whoever is faster than a cheetah and slower than a snail." After much discussion by our search committee we decided to go with a more traditional interview approach.

In Amy's first interview I teared up with a sense of her being the right person and a sense that Ian would have approved. Amy is leaving her role as Head of Client Services, a part of the Executive Team at Marmoset Music and will start with MVM on November 1st. Amy was the Managing Director of the Portland and Oregon chapters of the American Institute of Architects where she worked for 17 years and was on the board of Rock 'n Roll Camp for Girls for many years. Through that role she spoke on the phone with Ian and was able to learn more about MVM from him directly. Amy fronts a band, Shadowlands, with her identical twin sister, her husband, and a friend. And most importantly to me, Amy has a deep and personal connection to My Voice Music's mission, truly believing in the therapeutic power of music.

During the search process I found an old journal entry of Ian's from 2003, right before he and I met. His band's record deal had fallen through and Ian wrote about being worried that he wouldn't have a legacy. Luckily, Ian was one of the smartest and hardest working people I've ever met and he created that legacy that is Ian but is so much more than Ian. It is the tens of thousands of young people that MVM has worked with over the past 14 years. I can't begin to explain how grateful I am for that legacy. He made his life truly meaningful and I get to do my best to ensure that that legacy continues.

I couldn't be more grateful to Amy for stepping into this incredibly emotionally complex role to join us in continuing Ian’s legacy and guiding MVM into its next phase. I am confident that she will be a fantastic addition to our team.

I hope you will all join me and the MVM staff and board in welcoming Amy into this community which so many of us call family.

Karen Mouser Darr
Development Director

As Ian wrote to himself and all of us before he left on his ride: