Board President Donna Purchase to Step Down After 6 Years of Service; Beth Hall to Take Up Mantle
By Southwester Staff
The Southwest Neighborhood Assembly, (SWNA) a community nonprofit that works to enhance the quality of life for Southwest residents, announced a changing of the guard on its Board of Directors in late February.
Donna Purchase, who was first elected to the board in 2010 and has served as president since 2019, handed leadership over to incoming board president Beth Hall.
Purchase, a well-known community leader, has been a resident of Southwest DC since 1998, and brought more than 30 years of management experience in corporate and nonprofit businesses to her volunteer work with SWNA. The recipient of numerous awards, including the Women’s Institute for Secure Retirement’s WISER Hero Award for her work in financial literacy, Purchase is also known for her pride in her four children and nine grandchildren.
“Donna’s relentless spirit of giving is unmatched and not only demonstrated during her years of SWNA leadership but also beyond the call of duty on a personal level,” said Thelma D. Jones, Chair of SNWA’s Youth Activities Task Force. “I am a testament of her willingness to lend a helping hand and draw on her vast network of resources for the betterment of the community. Her institutional memory, vast network, and extensive experience in the nonprofit sector will be invaluable as she advises and supports the new SWNA leadership in fulfilling the organization’s mission.”
SWNA supports a range of programs and projects in the quadrant, from digital empowerment to youth scholarships to the monthly publication of The Southwester.
“Donna’s strong, steady and thoughtful leadership has brought SWNA, and our Southwest community, to new heights,” said Mike Goodman, former Editor-in-Chief of The Southwester.
“She has worked tirelessly to promote inclusion of all within the community, even as major changes have occurred all around us. She was always a defender and promoter of The Southwester, and helped the newspaper and the community navigate some tough times, including the pandemic, concerns over public safety, and the impacts of gentrification and over-development within Southwest. Our community is stronger thanks to Donna.”
The SWNA Board of Directors elected Beth Hall as its new president. An active volunteer and Southwest resident since 1989, Hall has held leadership roles with the Southwest Chapter of the AARP and the Friends of Titanic Memorial Park Board and volunteers with Waterfront Village.
In her professional career, Hall worked for the Massachusetts Senate and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, focusing on public water supply, underground injection control and the Superfund, bringing to her new role a range of experience with public action groups and fundraising.
“SWNA has a storied history here in Southwest from its early days in the 1960’s when it functioned as the local elected government in advance of home rule,” Hall said. “It was literally the only game in this part of town. Currently, it focuses its efforts on The Southwester, community meetings, a robust scholarship program and has several active task forces. All of this is volunteer driven. Moving into the future, I feel we need to build on our strengths as well as focus on partnerships with the rich ecosystem of organizations that are now in Southwest and participate actively in the changes that are happening in our neighborhood. I’m looking forward to getting more volunteers and funders involved with this important civic association as SWNA looks forward.”
