Max Gimbel

Director

Rural Community Building
Roseburg
He/Him
Spanish

“We partner with so many incredible people and groups who are doing courageous, exhausting work on the ground—day in and day out. They are front-line folks, and they take on big, very real and seemingly intractable challenges in their communities. They are taking on the future.”

Max Gimbel leads the Foundation’s Rural Community Building team (formerly Ford Institute for Community Building). It’s a role he describes as walking alongside both communities and his RCB colleagues, supporting their priorities and passions. “Our roles involve many conversations and much listening,” he says. “We are always looking for community energy and potential that we might help nudge forward.”

Max joined the Foundation in 2012, following five years as a facilitator and trainer for the Ford Institute Leadership Program. His areas of emphasis were youth development and bilingual work with Latinx communities. Max holds a graduate degree in Spanish and Latin American literature from the University of Oregon, in addition to an undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College.

Max says he loves his work because it is fun, messy, amazing and complex—just like the rural communities and teams he supports and admires. When Max isn’t working, you can find him spending time with his family or running on trails.
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