Tisha Tallman Selected as Incoming Leader
TUCSON, AZ – Since 2004, Peggy Hutchison has served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Primavera Foundation, a social justice organization bringing dignity to communities through safe, affordable housing, workforce development, and neighborhood revitalization. She plans to retire from the organization in September of this year.
During her tenure, the Primavera Foundation has expanded to improve the quality of life for people living in the Tucson area. Hutchison has led tangible growth for the organization and the community, including a newly constructed and expanded downtown Resource Center which opened in 2021, an award-winning Las Abuelitas Family Housing and Community Center built in 2014, and a portfolio of programs that provide resources to support a more resilient community. However, it is the work that often goes unseen that she is most proud of.
“I am proud that we have listened to communities, residents, and neighborhoods, enabling us to adapt our strategies and programs to provide deeper accompaniment and support,” said Hutchison. “I am proud that our diverse and committed staff members, representative of the communities with whom we live and work, are so devoted to creating a more compassionate, equitable, and just community.”
Listening and being present have remained guiding principles for Hutchison throughout her life and career. Those principles have helped her steer the organization through the challenging work of centering dignity in social justice and community resiliency.
“Peggy has always been interested in doing what’s right, not what’s popular,” the President of the Primavera Foundation’s Board of Directors, Samuel Swift, said about Hutchison.
“I am moved by how hard people work in our community and across the US and Puerto Rico to have basic human rights and true justice: a safe place to call home, employment that pays a living wage, family basic needs of healthy food, adequate health care, public safety, accessible education, and economic stability,” said Hutchison. “I am also deeply disturbed and appalled that people still struggle for these basic needs and human rights in an extremely wealthy and powerful nation.”
This struggle for access, equity, and human rights will be a central focus of the incoming CEO, Tisha Tallman. Tallman was selected by the Board of Directors after an extensive national search for someone to lead the organization after Hutchison’s retirement. She will take leadership at the end of September.
Tallman brings a unique lens and experience of time and place, having grown up in Iowa, the child of a Mexican American mother from a family of migrant farm workers and a Caucasian father who worked in factories his whole life. A Chicana attorney with an MBA, Tallman has served as a legal and public policy advocate, litigating in federal and state courts, and testifying, speaking, and writing on several public policy issues. She comes to the Primavera Foundation with 17 years of executive experience in the nonprofit sector, advocating for individuals, families, and communities at the intersection of poverty, homelessness, and race and ethnicity.
“We interviewed a number of well-qualified, inspiring candidates. The fact that Tisha rose above is a testament to her lifelong commitment to advocacy and leadership,” said Swift.
As for Hutchison, she will continue to champion the original vision of the Primavera Foundation and encourages ongoing community support.
“Community members sowed the seeds of Primavera Foundation,” Hutchison said. “Outraged at the growing numbers of people experiencing homelessness and without support for basic human needs in the early 1980s, compassionate community members organized to do something about it. While the organization has grown, developed new programs and strategies, and become more complex through the years, Primavera continues to listen to the voices of marginalized and underserved residents and engage them in our programmatic and advocacy strategies. The interest, compassion, and generosity of the community – residents, volunteers, donors, and community partners – all empower Primavera to continue to carry out our organizational mission and vision. Our impact is directly proportional to our engagement with and support of the community.”
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