Klassen named MCC executive director

Appointment follows her eight years as executive director of MCC Ontario.

Print Article Email to a Friend

Arli Klassen has been chosen as the next executive director of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), taking leadership of the organization’s relief, development and peace-building work in more than 50 countries.



Klassen comes to the position after serving for the past eight years as the executive director of MCC Ontario.

She will be the first woman to serve as the executive director of MCC in the organization’s 87-year history.

“I’m very excited for MCC with the hiring of Arli,” says Ron Dueck, MCC’s board chair. “Her work in Ontario has shown her to be an excellent administrator, forging strong links with the churches and developing leadership in visioning and guiding MCC in its mission.”

Klassen’s appointment follows 16 years of service with MCC in Africa, the United States and Canada. She first served with MCC in Lesotho and was MCC’s country representative there from 1991 to 1994.

She then worked in MCC’s Akron, Pa., office as a connecting peoples resource person and an assistant director of Africa programs before becoming executive director of MCC Ontario.
Klassen and her husband, Keith Regehr, are members of Breslau (Ont.) Mennonite Church. They have two daughters who are both university students in Ontario.

Klassen earned a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Toronto and a bachelor’s degree in sociology and religious studies from Mennonite Brethren Bible College and the University of Winnipeg. As a candidate for executive director, Klassen emphasized the importance of MCC’s relationship to its constituency of Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches.

“My vision for MCC is that we remain focused on our identity as a Mennonite/Brethren in Christ ministry while inviting others to support and partner with us in whatever work the churches are asking us to do,” Klassen wrote in a letter to the search committee.

After accepting the position, Klassen said, “MCC is a strong ministry facing new changes and challenges, and I am eagerly anticipating walking with the whole of MCC—all the churches locally and globally, partners, donors, volunteers and staff—in moving into the future.”

Dueck announced Klassen’s selection Sept. 14 to MCC staff members in the United States and Canada. She is expected to replace Bert Lobe, MCC’s interim executive director, by next spring.—Mennonite Central Committee

Related Resources

Discussion Guides:

• Discussion Resource I - Oct. 7
• Discussion Guide II - Oct. 14

Current Stories

Articles

• The appeal of cities
• A genuine open door
• Why are we attracted to cities?
• From seeker to leader

News stories, digests and Meno Acontecer

• Klassen named MCC executive director
• Fire destroys four buildings during Michiana Relief Sale
• Goshen and EMU soccer games played in Lancaster
• Health access initiative director named
• MCC assesses damage from Hurricane Felix
• Mennonite offices to be energy-efficient
• Global Youth Summit 2009 to triple in size
• Harriet Lapp Burkholder of Goshen dies
• Philhaven’s new center celebrates opening
• Tennessee church uses memorial garden

Columns

• Lessons from premarital counseling
• Taking time to settle
• The idol in our midst

Readers Say

• Mennonites and Holocaust denial
• Principled liberalism
• A modest proposal for Communion
• A modest proposal for Communion II
• ACHE affirms health-care plan for church workers