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Dodson to retire as MDC president in 2020

David Dodson

After 32 years at MDC, the last 20 as president, David Dodson announced that he is retiring in June 2020.

“This is a propitious time to hand the reins to a new leader who shares the vision and values that have guided MDC since 1967,” he wrote in a note to friends and partners.

A search committee of the MDC board is working under the direction of its vice chair, Leslie Winner (former President of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation) to find Dodson’s successor. The search process, in early stages right now, is being conducted by Boardwalk Consulting.
After his scheduled retirement on June 30, 2020, Dodson plans to take a break and expects to return in December 2020 as a Senior Fellow to support MDC’s work on Passing Gear Philanthropy, educational equity, and social mobility.

“MDC is blessed with a talented staff, an engaged board of directors of seasoned leaders from across our region chaired by Darrin Goss Sr. [President and CEO of the Coastal Community Foundation in Charleston, S.C.] and committed partners and funders who are firmly aligned to redress the inherited challenges and build on the vast potential that define the American South,” he said in his announcement. “To work with such a constellation of change makers has been an honor and joy and will continue to be so for the remainder of my tenure at MDC.”