New Jersey SEEDS has an outstanding mission: to help economically disadvantaged students from all over New Jersey gain access to educational opportunities in private schools all over the country. Its founders were dedicated to race-blind economic opportunity: education for those who want to be educated. I wish there were a NJ SEEDS in every major urban center in the nation.
Unfortunately, this not-for-profit suffers not from a poorly designed mission statement or a lack of funding from philanthropic donors. It is not weakened by incapable students or a dearth of resources. No, in many ways, it is an organization in full health. With the exception of one person: Amy Ziebarth.
After a few years teaching high school history at her own alma mater prep school, Amy Ziebarth found herself suddenly excited about poor kids. Noble so far. She started off as a staff member of what was then a 3-person organization in a small room on the Peddie School campus. If you knew her then, you knew a passionate, excited, and devoted servant to public good.
Subsequent years, however, have taken their toll. Amy Ziebarth became the Executive Director after Dwight Wilson stepped down as the first leader of NJ SEEDS. With no more than a few years of experience in non-profit work, Amy took the mount. That was back in 1995. Thirteen years later, she is still there. Herein lies the central fault line of an otherwise well-intentioned organization.
This is a leader who follows the "wag the dog" school of leadership. She has been known to lie to board members about the success of graduates; to fabricate statistics for annual reports and web site headlines; to ride on the coattails of her students' accomplishments to make a name for herself; and, worst of all, to hold on to her title long, long after her leadership stopped having any impact.
A wise leader should know when to step down and make way. Amy Ziebarth has talked nonstop about how one day SEEDS will be run by a SEEDS graduate. Why then, in her white glory, does she continue to remain at the helm of the program? Why has she not bought into the beauty of her own mission and made certain that the opportunity to lead such a worthwhile organization was made available to the next generation?
She enjoys the status and power associated with an executive directorship but does little to deserve the applause the organization would merit without her. Case in point: the founder of the organization, a former Head of School, has all but been excommunicated by the Board because Amy Ziebarth no longer has any interest in or use for him. She has effectively shut down relationships with a great number of receiving schools because she has deemed them to be "lesser than" in her personal ledger of rewards/givebacks.
She has zero relationship with any staff members in her receiving schools and relies entirely on the sacrificial low-salaried workers in hre management to do the grunt work. Wining and dining with the monied seems to be the glue that keeps this fly in the ointment. She has completely lost touch with the reality of the people who needs SEEDS the most and apparently fancies herself a hotshot executive who deserves first-class airline tickets and paid-for-by-the-Dodge-Foundation three-course meals.
It has been thirteen years since this organization had a visionary, inspired leader who cared about the kids and families it served. Amy Ziebarth needs to step down and let someone who GETS IT lead. Maybe one of these days while she zips out of Newark to go live "elsewhere, " while she works on another NY Times article glorifying the good work her staff members do, the Board will wake up and boot her. Until then, the seeds are planted and taking root.
Attention, kids: you can work your way to a top-notch school, give back to the people who helped you, be the first in your family to learn English and graduate from college, but the white suburban wife with gold bangles and too much time on her hands is still going to have the cushy office with the good view. Wake up, seeds. You are fighting fire with ashes. We can only hope the lesson isn't learned too late.
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