Letter from Nick Dreher

Dear Pangea community,

I am writing to formally share my plans to leave my role as Communications & Operations Manager with Pangea Giving at the end of August 2021. I have accepted a doctoral fellowship from Ryerson University and will be studying at their center for migration and integration. My focus will be on the relationship between migration, culture/identity and urban space. It’s a new direction but also in ways a culmination of my previous experiences and my more recent work here in Seattle. 

This is an exciting next step, but also a bittersweet moment personally as I have great appreciation for the opportunity Pangea has afforded me these last 3 years. 

My youthful aspirations had me set on a career in international social justice work, but I had mostly ruled out this direction for my career by the time I moved to Seattle in 2017. 

I’d had the opportunity to work for social justice organizations abroad in South Africa and Uganda and these experiences impacted me greatly. I learned an incredible amount and developed friendships that stay with me through today. But something deeply unsettled me about a dynamic that left me—a 20-something, white American male fresh from a general social sciences degree—as the supposed expert in a country where I’d only just arrived and knew little of the context. I left questioning the power dynamics, a consequence of centuries of colonialism and imperialism, that created this reality. I shifted the focus of my energies toward my own country, cognizant that many of the issues that Americans seek to address abroad are widespread at home—economic inequality, racial division, failures in democratic representation and environmental injustice. 

Through Pangea, I have reinvigorated my passion for social justice work that crosses borders and cultures. I have also learned how it is possible to engage in this critical work in a way that considers the complex power dynamics informed by history and aims to honor and raise up the deep knowledge and lived experience of people and communities. 

I don’t leave Pangea claiming to know all or even most of the answers to effective cross-cultural social justice work. But I’ve gained a new appreciation for asking questions, being open to collaboration, and being willing to learn through action. 

I am grateful for the support Pangea has provided me in this role and the experiences the organization have supported, from sending me on a site visit to Mexico in 2019 to supporting my participation in the Global Leadership Forum Cohort XV, among others. 

I also want to share my appreciation for the Pangea community. I am grateful for the opportunity to meet and connect with Pangea’s board, members and grant partners around the world. I hope to continue to grow these connections as time moves forward. 

In gratitude,

nick