October Community Calls: values-led change and duty of care

In October, InterAction held two Community Calls for C-suite leaders of US-based international nonprofits. The calls are off the record, so this roundup stays with the topics and a few themes.

On October 9, Ruth Rhoads Allen, President and Chief Collaboration Officer of CDA Collaborative Learning, and Catherine McMahon, an organizational development consultant, led “Pull of the Future: How Values-Led Organizational Change Shifts Systems.” They shared lessons from the strategic affiliation between CDA and Local Capacities for Peace International, formalized in Nairobi in March 2026. Four themes came out of the call: start with values and power, not structures and logos; use a futures lens that looks at the pull of the future, the push of the present and the weight of the past; design legal and governance arrangements that shift power; and treat integration as a learning process.

On October 23, DeAnne Dale, General Manager, North America at DGI, led “Duty of Care in a Volatile World: From Compliance to Real-Time Traveler Protection.” The call took up what a CEO owes staff in higher-risk places, how much leadership should see of staff location and status during a crisis, and the systems that protect people, such as traveler tracking and emergency response.

The next Community Calls are on Friday, November 6 and Friday, November 20, at 3:00 p.m. ET. They are for C-suite leaders of US-based international nonprofits only. To join, sign up on the Community Calls page at https://www.interaction.org/community-calls/