New RA Board Elects Officers; Tim Dowling Resigns As At-Large Director

RESTON, VA — A day after three new members joined the Reston Association Board of Directors following the 2022 election, At-Large Member Tim Dowling announced his resignation.

The announcement came during the new board's organizational meeting on Wednesday night, when Sarah Selvaraj-D'Souza (at-large) was selected to be the new president, Jennifer Jushchuk (South Lakes) vice president, Irwin Flashman (Lake Anne/Tall Oaks) secretary, and Robert T. Petrine (at-large) treasurer.

Dowling notified the board of his resignation in an April 13 letter to former President Caren Anton, who remains on the board as the Dogwood District director.

“It has been an honor serving on the board under your leadership (President Caren Anton) to benefit our members and support the association’s outstanding staff,” Dowling said, in his resignation letter.

The board will now focus on finding someone to appoint to fill the open at-large seat. The deadline for qualified candidates to submit a statement of candidacy to the board liaison is 9 a.m., on April 28. Candidate forms are available in the 2022 At-Large District Candidacy Form Dropbox folder.

The RA Board will appoint the new director after reviewing all of the staff-certified candidates at its May 26 meeting. The term of the appointed position will run through April 2023.

Flashman, Glenn Small (at-large) and Laurie Dodd (North Point) officially became directors during Tuesday night's annual members meeting. They each ran unopposed during the March RA Board election to fill the three board seats vacated by John Mooney (NorthPoint), Aaron Webb (Tall Oaks), and Tom Mulkerin (At-Large), all of whom stepped down at Tuesday's meeting.

Over the last several months, the previous board sought to name a new chief executive officer before the new board was seated.

"It was my fervent hope that at this annual member meeting tonight, I would be able to announce that we have a new CEO," Anton said, during the annual meeting on Tuesday. "Unfortunately, as hard as we've been working on that, it was just not to be. It wasn't in the cards."

It was Anton's hope that the new board would take up the baton and hopefully be able to name the new CEO quickly.

The RA Board has been operating without an official CEO since the beginning of September 2021. That's when former CEO Harry P. "Hank" Lynch stepped down to become the CEO at WildAid, a nonprofit focused on protecting endangered species and their habitats. Since Lynch's departure, Larry Butler, RA's chief operating officer, has been acting as CEO.