Announcing Leadership Transition at Sur Legal
Thank you for your continued support of Sur Legal Collaborative and for your consistent allyship—both to the people we serve and our staff and Board teams. We are writing today with gratitude to share the announcement of a leadership transition within our organization.
From Co-Founder & Outgoing Executive Director, Shelly Anand
“I am incredibly proud of the work the Sur Legal team and I have done to build this organization from the ground up in just under five years. We have accomplished so much in such a short period of time. From securing immigration protections for survivors of the 2021 nitrogen leak to educating thousands about their rights at the nexus of labor, immigration, and mass incarceration, we have so much to be proud of. We have also built an incredible team—growing from two staff members at our founding to now a staff of 10 powerful advocates.
“It is with deep gratitude and appreciation for all the people that make our work at Sur Legal possible—staff, donors, partners, immigrant and worker communities, volunteers, Board Members, funders, and advocates—that I announce that I am officially stepping down from my role as Executive Director. After a planned sabbatical, I will return in September in the role of Strategic Advisor to the organization, to provide support with the executive transition and with Sur Legal’s long term sustainability.
“I am pleased to share that our founding Board Member, Asia Parks, is taking the role of Interim Executive Director to provide leadership and staff support while Sur Legal’s Board of Directors leads the executive search process over the summer. A lawyer and organizer, Asia has served the Atlanta community for many years—as both a long-time Chair of the NLG Georgia chapter and, most recently, as Privacy and Ethics Counsel in an education non-profit. Asia was there alongside us at the very beginning, and is already fully supporting our dedicated and hard-working staff team through this transition. I remain inspired by our team’s dedication to educating, mobilizing, and representing immigrant workers and organizers within Georgia and across the South.
“The decision behind this transition comes from a place of care: care for the communities we serve, care for the incredible team that has worked alongside me to deliver on our collective mission, and care for my family and myself. After spending 14 years as an attorney fighting alongside immigrant and worker communities across the South—including building and leading Sur Legal over the past five years—it is now time for me to lean into the most important job in my life: being a mom to my two beautiful children. While the struggle for immigrant and worker rights will continue throughout my lifetime, having the space and time I want and need to be with my children before they become adults is finite.
“Sur Legal is blessed to have the ability to continue to do the work we are doing in this particular climate, something I do not take lightly or for granted. This ability is due to you and your consistent support over these last five years; our community has always been the heartbeat of Sur Legal, and together we will continue to show up for immigrant worker communities in the South.”
In solidarity—always,
Shelly Anand (she/her/ella)
Co-Founder, Sur Legal Collaborative
From Board Member & Interim Executive Director, Asia Parks
“I know that I speak on behalf of all of Sur Legal’s staff and Board Members when I express my immense gratitude and appreciation for Shelly and her years spent building, leading, and growing our organization. Shelly’s expertise and vision paved the way for Sur Legal to meet a critical unmet need of immigrant worker communities in Georgia and across our region, and we remain committed to widening our reach and deepening our impact in alignment with this vision. Sur Legal Collaborative would not be where we are today without Shelly, and she has the full support of all of us through this transition into her next chapter.
“Together, we are committed to a seamless transition process to ensure no interruption to our programmatic work and continued supervisory support to our staff. In the coming weeks, we look forward to sharing the Executive Director search announcement and seeking the next leader to continue Sur Legal’s upward trajectory and our essential work alongside immigrant and worker communities in the Deep South.
“We look forward to updating you soon—on both our work across the first few months of 2025 and our executive search. If you have any questions in the meantime, please reach out to us at development@surlegal.org.
With gratitude,
Asia Parks, (she/her/ella)
Interim Executive Director, Sur Legal Collaborative