Mark Richert
1515 Jefferson Davis Hwy Apt 622
Arlington, VA 22202-3309
Cell: (571) 438-7895
1. Introduce yourself and list the office for which you are planning to run. Explain why you wish to serve as an officer of the ACB.
My name is Mark Richert, I live in Arlington, Virginia, and I’m running for the office of ACB’s First Vice President. I’m currently the Director of Public Policy for the National Disability Institute and the founding President of Excelsis, LLC, a public policy consultancy. Having the opportunity to be part of something much bigger than myself and to “give back” have always been compelling motivations for me, and as many of you know, I’ve had any number of opportunities to do this professionally, especially with regard to my work at the national level for more than 25 years. While I’ve been extremely active in ACB for decades, I’ve always shied away from ACB politics over time because of my involvement with the major national groups in our field for whom I have had the privilege of providing senior leadership for many years. With the beginning of a new professional chapter in my life outside of the blindness system per se, ACB members can be more confident than ever that I’m my own man and not carrying the water for anyone else. But for me, I know that being of use to our community both in and through ACB will always be my first love. This is why your support would mean the world to me; I want to continue to be of service to ACB, and yes, I believe I have a wealth of nationally-ranked relevant knowledge, demonstrable leadership skills, and uniquely equipping experience to offer our in-coming President, Board of Directors, staff, and all of us in ACB to best position us for success at this exciting time. I ask for your vote and for your help as we all pull together to accomplish the important work ahead.
2. Summarize any experience, knowledge, skills and/or abilities you have which qualify you to serve in the office for which you are seeking election.
For more than a quarter century, I have been a champion for all of us who are blind or visually impaired. My work as a lawyer and public policy counsel, national spokesperson, association chief executive, and organizational strategist has left me grateful for the chance to offer whatever talent I possess, along with good humor and a deep reservoir of experience-tempered idealism, to try to live out a passionate commitment to justice. Nearly all of my adult public life has involved developing meaningful partnerships, engaging in sometimes tough negotiation, building coalitions, resolving conflict, and achieving significant national impact in a host of areas with all of the major national groups and leading figures both within and outside our field. I have learned so much from and have been mentored by some of the most significant change agents in the business, and having come to be thoroughly acquainted with their many strengths and weaknesses, including my own, I’ve also gained an understanding of what both does and does not work. As an ACB staffer back in the day, I learned how truly unique each individual’s challenges really are and how bankrupt one-size-fits-all solutions can be. As AER’s Executive Director, I learned the arts of budgeting, board management, strategic plan implementation, and the primacy of putting members first. Throughout my professional and volunteer work, I have managed highly skilled staff, mobilized countless volunteers, resolved inter-organizational contract and similar disputes, served on congregational, local service provider, and national boards of directors, worked with media and resource development professionals, and both participated in and facilitated organizational strategic planning. And all this work was accomplished while some eight landmark federal laws and programs and countless regulatory proceedings shaped by my work product have both measurably and immeasurably improved all of our lives.
3. What do you consider to be your strongest contribution to ACB at either the national, state, special-interest affiliate or local chapter level and why?
Most ACB members around the country likely know me for one of two reasons. Having served for the last seven years as our Resolutions Committee chair (and on the Committee for nearly 15 years prior), certainly convention attendees have had an opportunity to see me try my best to make the process for our membership’s articulation of policy and other priorities both substantive and engaging. Similarly, the other contribution I’m most known for is my decades-long work on national advocacy issues about which I have made countless presentations hopefully in an informative and approachable way to help mobilize ACB members for successful systems change. However, I truly believe my biggest contribution to ACB is my authenticity. What you see is what you get. I have a mind for both strategy and detail. I am never content with short-term solutions or simply winning the next couple of moves; I play a long game. For me, it’s all about both having the clearest possible vision for the big picture as well as the knowhow to play with the right pixels to fix poor screen quality. Relatedly, my courage has been and will remain a critical contribution. The toughest thing to do sometimes is to speak up and pitch in when you know that the popular thing to do would be to go along to get along. While human beings are always to be shown respect, ideas are meant to be challenged. I have the courage to raise questions, sound alarms, and challenge status quo thinking when remaining silent and refusing to step up would be, for me, a cowardly form of dishonesty. While I know I have many shortcomings, lacking vision, courage, or fidelity to hard work on our organization’s behalf would never be numbered among them.
4. What do you consider to be the most important challenge facing ACB? How will you work to address it?
We clearly face a number of ongoing and related challenges, and let me launch here with membership. When, in 1996, I was 27 years old barely making an appreciable salary but decided to purchase my own ACB Life Membership, I did so because I had tons of respect for ACB’s origins and historically fierce and independent voice. I saw ACB really beginning to come into its own at that time as an agent of change for all of us. And I wanted to be part of the action in any way I could to help realize an amazing future for ACB. Now I readily admit I’m a nerd, meaning that I know plenty of things light me up that lots of others would never find pulse-quickening, but I was jazzed about being a part of something that was both transforming and transformational. I truly believe that ACB’s most significant challenge today is this: How do we honor our heritage and preserve the best of who we’ve been, and celebrate and sell who we currently are, while simultaneously devoting ourselves with honesty to become who we want to be? Certainly strategic planning, connecting with affluent influencers, and prioritizing member services are all part of the picture, but so must also be widely embraced reasons for being. If you ask ten random ACB members to describe our purpose today and what we need to become tomorrow, you’d get at least eleven different responses, and not nearly enough of them would be voiced with infectious enthusiasm. As your next First Vice President, I want to help fan the flames of a vibrant shared vision that truly lights a fire under all of us to make ACB into everything we believe it ought to be. All the rest is just implementation.