Aleen Carey, educator and food justice leader, was elected as Charlottesville Tomorrow’s board chair beginning March 1, 2024. Carey is the co-executive director of Cultivate Charlottesville, and also serves on the board of the Building Goodness Foundation.
Carey takes this role following Jacqueline Salmon, who served as chair for over a year and saw Charlottesville Tomorrow through some of the largest growth in the organization’s history. Salmon remains on the board. Carey hopes to carry on the work of the previous board chairs as Charlottesville Tomorrow continues to grow readership and support as a trusted source for local news told through the perspectives of community members.
“As Charlottesville Tomorrow gains national recognition for the way in which it tells Charlottesville area stories, it’s also key to increase local support. From the Voter Guide to development plans — we want everyone to know that Charlottesville Tomorrow is where you go to be informed,” said Carey.
Kristen Suokko has been elected vice chair of the board, a role introduced this year to help build capacity and greater avenues for leadership on the board. Suokko is a longtime leader in nonprofit governance and environmental stewardship. She spent the first part of her career in Washington, DC with the Natural Resources Defense Council and the US Department of Energy. In 1998 she moved to Charlottesville to work in environmental philanthropy for the W. Alton Jones Foundation and the Blue Moon Fund and joined the staff of Local Food Hub in 2013, where she served as executive director until 2022.
The board also welcomed two new board members this year, who have deep ties and have provided tremendous leadership to communities in central Virginia.
Filadelfia Soto brings expertise in education and community organizing to the Charlottesville Tomorrow board. Born and raised in Peru, she immigrated to Charlottesville in 2007 and has degrees in Spanish and Italian Language, and a Masters in Teaching Foreign Languages and English for Speakers of Other Languages from the University of Virginia. In the field of education, Filadelfia has worked with students of all ages and backgrounds, from preschool to adult education, and helps strengthen equity and inclusion in our public school systems.
For Soto, leadership is about trust. And she joined the board because she feels news has a big role to play in building trust in communities, especially immigrant communities.
“It’s access to the right information. That’s how you get places. You’re asking a question, you get the answer,” Soto said. “I’m so excited to bring my voice into this and hopefully, open minds and hear others and open my own.”
Peter Thompson joins the Charlottesville Tomorrow board after 24 years as the executive director of The Center at Belvedere, where he oversaw tremendous growth in opportunities for healthy aging in the Charlottesville area. During Thompson’s tenure, The Center grew from a $400,000 annual budget in a 17,000 square foot facility to a $3 million budget in a 47,000 square foot facility that opened in 2020.
Joining the Charlottesville Tomorrow board, he said, is a natural transition.
“The more we talked with to community members and listening to people about what the community needs were, we need to build bridges in every way — across ages, socially, economically, racially. And we need places and systems to do that. And we need infrastructure to do that,” Thompson said. “The Center at Belvedere is doing its piece, and I think Charlottesville Tomorrow is another part of a healthy ecosystem.”
Charlottesville Tomorrow is a nonprofit, community-driven, socially conscious news organization. We seek to serve the diverse communities of this region, and that mission flows through all that we do — from copy editing the newsletter to the work of our board of directors.
We are proud to welcome new leadership and new members to our 14-member, volunteer board, and excited for their vision of what independent, local news can do for our communities.
Want to help Charlottesville Tomorrow grow? Meet with Charlottesville Tomorrow’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Angilee Shah by finding a time here.
