Greetings, and blessings for a wonderful 2025!

I am Adelia Thompson, and it is my honor and joy to step in as the new CEO for the Peninsula Community Foundation of Virginia. Following in the footsteps of longtime, treasured CEO Mike Monteith, it is a privilege to stand on the shoulders of all he and the Foundation’s board have worked so hard – and with such heart -  to build.

For more than two decades, the PCF has been working with families, businesses, nonprofit partners, educators, government leaders and leaders of all ranks across the Peninsula to make life better – caring for our neighbors.  The next chapter in the Foundation’s story will be about how we keep on doing that – and do more, in a world that is ever-changing, and where our neighbors need our care more than ever. I see and appreciate the responsibility and possibility wrapped up in that chapter.

I come to the Foundation after nearly 40 years working in the nonprofit arena. I grew up and attended college in Alabama, and spent the lion’s share of my professional career serving organizations in Alabama and Georgia. Much of that time was in higher education, and for the better part of the last 14 years, I had the privilege of serving as part of the administrative leadership at Christopher Newport University.

And it was because of the time with CNU that my husband and I also fell in love with this Peninsula community. So, when we decided it was time for me to retire from CNU, we did so hoping there might be an opportunity to take the relationships and lessons learned from those years and put them to work in a new way, in service to this community we call home. It is an honor to be invited to step into this role, at this foundation, at this moment in its history – knowing full well it will be a different role, but hopeful just perhaps it will be the place where I can offer something more.

In the weeks and months ahead, I look forward to meeting many of the families and businesses who are and have been generous investors in the Foundation through the years – who have found at this Foundation the ability to leverage their resources most powerfully to do the greatest good for this community. I look forward to meeting the leaders across the six municipalities that call the Peninsula home – who know so well all the challenges, opportunities and dreams inherent in life for the people of this segment of the 757. And it will be an honor to get to know the nonprofit partners who receive support from and through the Foundation, and for whom the Foundation could be a new resource – to learn from you who are on the front lines of service, every day - the faces and working hands of life-saving and life-changing support.

 A wise friend told me that when you “stand on shoulders,” people expect you to see further. And, they expect you will know what to do with what you see.  

I have a lot of seeing and learning to do. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with the dedicated staff and passionate board of the Peninsula Community Foundation, and with leaders across this community, to build on the legacy of this foundation's support, and to broaden and deepen our ability to anticipate and respond to the many possibilities and growing needs that are part of life on this Peninsula.

For all that lies ahead, I thank you.

Adelia Thompson