After joining the board in 2000, Dianne Dillon-Ridgley was Chair from 2005 to 2007. She was both the first female and the first person of color to serve as Board Chair in River Network’s history. Despite her tenure coinciding with a particularly challenging period for River Network financially and politically, diversity and inclusion was a major focus. 

“I didn’t take the position of Board Chair casually, and I understood it as an opportunity and responsibility to bring together communities and concepts that at the time were too frequently thought of as separate. I wasn’t a kayaker; I was a different person to be Chair – you wanted different people to be Chair.”

-Dianne Dillon-Ridgley