Nonprofit’s co-founder passes her leadership role on to others

After 11 years at the helm of the Costa Mesa nonprofit she helped co-found, Christine Brooks Nolf has called it quits.

Nolf left her position as executive director at Mika Community Development Corp. on June 26. The nonprofit, based on Monrovia Avenue, provides leadership development programs for youths and adults living in low-income Westside neighborhoods.

Nolf, a Costa Mesa native and daughter of former Newport-Mesa Unified School District board member Dave Brooks, said she’ll be taking some time off and then wants to work on her writing. She also plans to teach nonprofit management at Concordia University and get involved with the Global Immersion Project, a San Diego-based group that promotes peacemaking and works on immigration issues.

Nolf said she knew it was time to leave the organization when she realized that people from Mika’s ranks were ready to take on leadership roles.

“We’re a leadership development organization. That’s what we do,” she said. “For me, discerning the right time had a lot to do with that.”

Keturah Kennedy, a Mika board member and its former director of operations, took the helm as interim director on June 27. Kennedy has been with the nonprofit for the last decade.

“She knows more than me in a lot of ways,” Nolf said.

In a letter addressing Mika supporters, its board chairman, Jeff Tanner, said he was sad to see Nolf go.

“Christine not only helped found Mika, she has also led it with integrity and purpose for 11 years,” Tanner wrote. “She’s helped build it into an enduring and important part of Costa Mesa and Orange County community life. I’ve never known someone who so wholeheartedly lives and breathes Mika’s motto to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God and her neighbors.”

Nolf said Mika’s greatest success has been building “unlikely friendships and connections.”

She cited a care-giving system created by Mika leaders on Maple Avenue. To aid cancer patients living on the Westside street, neighbors began connecting with one another and providing food, child care and transportation assistance. That simple act of bringing people together has made a big difference, Nolf said.

“I think what gets underestimated is how much actually gets done with people knowing each other,” she said.

Nolf said she isn’t leaving Costa Mesa; she and her husband recently bought a home on the Westside.

“We’re definitely still very grounded here,” she said, “and will continue to be involved here.”