CHRISTIANSBURG — Ms. Gladys H. Sokolow, long-time leader of Christiansburg Institute, Inc., has announced her retirement as Executive Director. The Board of Directors has accepted Ms. Sokolow’s retirement with great respect, admiration, and a deep appreciation for her wisdom and guidance over the last decade.
“Ms. Sokolow has served with heart and soul, every day of her tenure,” Board Chair Bob Leonard said, “Only through her fiscal prudence and long-term vision have we been able to grow our organization and build our capacity for success.”
Ms Sokolow is a Christiansburg Institute alumna, class of 1953, when the Institute was the African-American high school for the New River Valley. Her stewardship drew on her family upbringing in Pulaski County, her schooling at Calfee Training School and Christiansburg Institute, and her 30 years as librarian at the Queens Public Library in New York City.
The Board of Directors has taken careful steps to ensure Ms. Sokolow’s legacy will continue. Timed with her retirement announcement, the Board of Directors is excited to present Mr. Chris Sanchez as the new executive director of Christiansburg Institute, Inc.
Mr. Sanchez has served the organization as Project Organizer since early 2017. He moved to Blacksburg, Virginia, from Detroit, Michigan, in 2014, as a part of a church-planting launch team that was starting a new church in the Blacksburg community, then called ‘Dust Covenant Church’, as a part of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) denomination.
Prior to arriving in Southwest, Virginia, Mr. Sanchez served four years in a leadership capacity in youth and student ministry at an ECC church in Metro Detroit. His work in ministry has focused on youth development and discipleship, biblical literacy, intersectionality and identity, and racial justice.
“Mr. Sanchez has demonstrated a creative passion for the history and alumni and alumnae of the school, and the place its stories hold for our time,” Leonard said, adding, “He has risen to the challenge of our ambitions for the Edgar A. Long building and campus to serve as a place for intergenerational learning and leadership in service to racial and social justice in the African American and broader communities of the New River Valley.”
In a related action, the Board of Directors has elected board member Ms Debbie Sherman-Lee as Treasurer. Ms Sherman-Lee, a former teacher in Christiansburg High School, is active throughout the community, bringing her experience as a member of the Dialogue on Race Steering Committee, the Christiansburg Ruritan, and many other organizations.
Ms Sherman-Lee, joins Chair Leonard and Secretary Evelyn Young as the officers of the Board. For more information contact Chris Sanchez at (734) 383-5033 or email cbonifaces@gmail.com
Bob Leonard, Chair,
Board of Directors, Christiansburg Institute, Inc.