HOLYOKE — One of Holyoke’s most prominent social service nonprofits has named a new executive director.
On Tuesday, Enlace de Familias announced that on Jan. 1, Frank Martínez López will become the organization’s next executive director. Martínez currently works at MassHire Holyoke but previously served as intake specialist at Enlace during the organization’s response to the arrival of those arriving in the city after Hurricane Maria.
Martínez will be taking over a role held for 27 years by Betty Medina Lichtenstein, a central figure in the city when it came to issues like housing, food security, education and more. Medina was a trailblazer who in 1985 became the first Puerto Rican woman elected to public office in Massachusetts when she won a seat on the city’s School Committee.
Martínez said Tuesday that he is excited to continue Medina’s legacy and vision for a better Holyoke.
“What inspires me the most is the fact that I’m going to be able to help my own community — the Holyoke community — who taught me everything I know,” he said.
Martínez went to elementary, middle and high school in Holyoke before moving to Puerto Rico to finish his bachelor’s degree in nursing. When Hurricane Maria hit the island in 2017, he and his family evacuated and arrived in Holyoke. He began working with Enlace to help those displaced by the hurricane, continuing that work at MassHire, where he helped those same people find work.”
Martínez said that he has “huge shoes to fill,” but that he’s eager to get to work. He said he’s excited about collaborating with other nonprofits and that he plans to do a lot of listening at first, engaging residents to figure out their needs.
“Whether it be housing or food insecure, inequality in the community — what do they want to tackle?” he said. “My goal is to really understand what their needs are and focus on that.”
In a phone interview Tuesday, Medina said it feels strange to be stepping down to part-time work next month, ultimately leaving the organization at the end of January. Over the years she had often worked six-day weeks, or sometimes without a day off “when we had crises like fires and buildings falling and Hurricane Maria,” Medina said.
“I’ve been here during the good, bad and the ugly, doing the work that the community has needed,” Medina said.
The job that Martínez is stepping into will be different than the one Medina is leaving behind, Medina said. That’s because the structure of Enlace is changing in order to better continue the organization’s work, she added.
Medina explained that when Enlace’s board was searching for a new executive director, a consultant followed Medina around and concluded that the organization should hire more people to take on the work Medina had been doing herself — everything from HR to dealing with the nonprofit’s building.
To that end, Medina said that Enlace has named Roy Lichtenstein — her youngest son, who has run parenting programs at the organization for 21 years — as the new director of programs. And Freddy Dejesus, who has worked at Enlace for six years, was named as the new director of operations and resources, Medina said.
“The role that I had is very different than the role that Frank has today because now there is an internal structure to be able to support programs, human resources and operations – the day to day,” Medina said.
As for Medina’s future, the 69-year-old said she plans to slow down. But for Medina, that means that she still intends to work part time. She said she’s unsure what her next stop will be, but that she intends to continue the kind of work she has always done: helping people get the support they need.
“I’ve always been excited about coming to work,” Medina said about her time at Enlace. “It’s what gets me up in the morning.”
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.