Dear MCRA Family,
My name is Dexter N. Jackson, and I am proud to serve as your newly appointed Executive Director of the Mid-City Redevelopment Alliance. My journey to this role has been filled with bumps, uncertainty, and doubt, but that turbulence along the way only makes me more grateful and excited for the opportunity to lead the MCRA into the future.
In full transparency, the last few years I have been deeply uncertain about my future. Like many millennials, I carry a soul-stirring anxiety about what lies ahead. To cope with this uncertainty, I began laying foundations and pathways that would allow me to leave my beloved home of Baton Rouge. I applied to and was accepted into graduate school in Los Angeles and New Orleans, picturing a glamorous life in Hollywood or pursuing education while singing in jazz clubs around the Big Easy. I told myself I was ready to leave because I had become disenfranchised with Baton Rouge, with the systems and people who were supposed to put us first. If I’m being honest with myself, though, while that disenfranchisement was real, I was really chasing a new beginning. I wanted to start over somewhere I wasn’t so emotionally and passionately connected to, somewhere that wouldn’t affect me so deeply when it disappointed me. I was attempting to do what I always do when I’m hurt by someone or something I care about: I was running away.
I stand as one of the many people who are homeowners because of the MCRA. In 2019, I stood in Rayna’s office learning about the homeownership program and a few weeks later, I was at the Baton Rouge General attending a homeownership course. A few months later I purchased my home. When I received this job offer I was in upstate New York running a residential summer camp and I was beyond ready to come home. I began to contemplate the idea of home—reflecting on all of the memories that I had made at my house. The first time my nieces and nephews visited my home. The concert that I threw in my living room. The bands that I got to watch use my living room as a practice space. The love that had been shared there and the ideas that were grown there. These reflections made it clear that I had to accept this job. Since 1991, MCRA has changed the lives of countless community members through homeownership education, financial literacy, and the economic stimulation and development of Mid-City and beyond. I quickly realized that I could not say no to such a consequential opportunity to lead, serve, and facilitate transformative change. I withdrew from school in LA and forfeited my deposit on an apartment, I informed my school district that I would not be returning after the summer break, and pulled my home off the rental market. I was being called home.
I know that MCRA has faced some hard times over the last few years. There is much trust building, reconnecting, and engaging that must be done. I look forward to and embrace the challenges ahead, because the truth is, this work is too important to fail. Our team is full of experienced and passionate community leaders, and our board is resilient, engaged, active, and visionary. All of the tools for success are at our disposal. But in order to accomplish our goals, we need your support. Yes, that includes your donations, but just as importantly we need your stories, your voice, your passion, your leadership. As your new Executive Director, I ask for your help where it’s needed, your support where you can, and your grace as I learn and grow. My vision for this organization is to refocus on what we do best, rebuild our trust and engagement with our partners and stakeholders, and continue the transformative work that has always been at the heart of MCRA. The future we can build together is bright, and I’m ready to work.
In Light,
Dexter N. Jackson
