Leadership Transition - Looking Ahead to 2026

It has been a joy for me to work with churches over the past 20+ years in Texas and beyond in literacy ministry. Most of that has been with helping persons learn English - very helpful for immigrants, refugees and others who come to the United States to begin a new life. Literacy ConneXus also equips churches to provide access to books for children participating in summer meals programs. We call that project What's for Lunch? Ready for School! is a family literacy initiative that assists children of refugees prepare for Kindergarten. We also support adults with very limited literacy skills as they prepare for study of GED materials, in a program called LEARN for Life.

Looking ahead, we are excited to announce our current Executive Director, Lester Meriwether's, retirement. Lester has led Literacy ConneXus with honor and distinction, serving churches, nonprofits, and individuals across Texas and beyond. He has built bookcases, hauled books, spoken at Elk's Lodges and missions events, served on nonprofit boards, assisted new literacy programs and coalitions in getting of the ground, promoted literacy and ESL in more ways than will fit in this blurb. We are so thankful for his faithful leadership! Of note is his recent Lifetime Achievement Award, received by Lester at the 2025 Literacy Texas conference. A well-deserved tribute! We will greatly miss Lester as our director, but happy to see him enjoy more time with his wife, kids, and grandkids, as well as his next big ventrue - coaching nonprofit leaders as they develop succession plans - a timely topic!

We are also excited to announce our new Executive Director, Matthew Johnston, who will serve alongside Lester until the end of this year and assume leadership in January of 2026. Matthew brings a wealth of knowledge from a background as an ESL teacher for over 15 years along with service in nonprofits and ministry positions in Texas and around the world. He joined Literacy ConneXus as an intern back in 2012, returned as a TECs trainer in 2020, and has developed video materials and co-authored, edited, and published the Teaching English ConneXus teacher-training manual this year. We are excited to have him on the team! Your donation will help us continue and expand our service to those with literacy needs, building upon a 20+ year history, and looking ahead to 20+ more years of helping churhces and nonprofits help people with literacy needs!