Dear Pollen Community,
We’re writing this note from a place of openness and vulnerability, so please bear with us. Pollen is led by an incredible team of individuals who care deeply about this community. As an all female staffed organization, we bring a visceral passion for the encouragement and growth of our fellow female leaders.
This morning we realized a heartbreaking mistake we made — a mistake that undermines the trust and support we’ve worked so hard to build as a storytelling and community-centered organization.
Over the past few weeks, we have been a media sponsor and promoter for an event hosted by Heartland Circle about women in the workplace. Patricia Neal, co-founder and president of Heartland Circle, is the parent of a recently convicted rapist, Alec Neal. Patricia and her husband Craig started a letter writing campaign to defend their son’s “good character” pre-conviction and have continually undermined Sarah Super’s story.
Now knowing this connection, we hereby publicly withdraw our support of Heartland Circle and the “Inclusive Leadership: Why Company Culture and Men Matter” event being hosted today. While we support the underlying mission of this event and the women on the panel, we cannot support any organizations or individuals who align themselves with the erasure of women’s stories and validation of experience, especially for victims of rape.
As individuals we stand with Sarah Super. As an organization with a mission to build better connected communities by breaking down the barrier of narrative, we stand with Sarah Super.
Sincerely,
Jamie Millard, Meghan Murphy, Julie Cohen
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*Illustration created by Allegra Lockstadt for Pollen’s Work Redux event series.*
*This post has been edited to reflect the letter writing campaign as in the past.*