The nonprofit Inlandia Institute, which promotes books, literature and writing in the Inland Empire, is looking for a new leader.
Executive Director Cati Porter has announced she’s resigning in mid-December after guiding the organization for 12 years.
“As Inlandia prepares to enter its third decade, it is time to make space for transformative new leadership through a competitive hiring process in order to meet the future head on,” Porter said in a news release.
Marion Mitchell-Wilson, who died in 2015, founded Inlandia in 2007 and turned the reins over to Porter, a poet and author, in 2012. Under Porter’s leadership, the institute has expanded its public programs with events such as writing workshops and also grown its publications division.
The Inlandia Institute also writes a weekly column in this publication called Inlandia Literary Journeys.
Under Porter’s tenure, the institute established the Hillary Gravendyk Prize for poetry, the Eliud Martínez Prize for prose and the Riverside County Teen Poet Laureate, according to the release. Inlandia also forged partnerships with museums and other institutions in the region and elsewhere. The group collected more than $750,000 in grants, the release states.
Porter “has built on the foundation established by our founder, Marion Mitchell-Wilson, and taken the organization to unexpected new heights,” founding board member and author Ellen Estilai said in the release. “… With a small but dedicated staff and never enough resources, she has worked small miracles, crafting unique programs for a variety of audiences.”
Inlandia’s board will now search for a new executive director.
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