International Institute’s former CEO says his vision and the organization’s were not aligned

The immigrant and refugee community was rocked last week by the news that the International Institute of St. Louis had parted ways with its CEO and president. After a week of silence, Arrey Obenson said he resigned because his vision and the institute's for immigrants and refugees were misaligned.

“You can only achieve so much within the confines of a mission and vision of an organization," he said. “In the last nearly four years, we accomplished so much within a short period of time, to the extent that it was about time for me to move on to do other things in this community that couldn't be done within the confines of the International Institute.”

When Obenson started with the nonprofit organization in February 2021, his focus was to change the narrative around immigrants and refugees, build a coalition of community members and organizations to help change that narrative and put the organization on a pathway to financial sustainability. He said he communicated these goals with the institute during his interview process before he took over the organization.

He planned to accomplish his goals by 2030, but Obenson said as with every organization, there are disagreements in the boardroom. “We may be going down one path and not everybody sees that as the same, and so when faced with that kind of situation, you have to do what is right for yourself, as well as for the organization.

“When I started out at the organization, we were 92% dependent on federal funding, and as I left the organization, we're down to about 69%, which means that I spent so much of my time investing in this community, in building relationships within this community and changing the narrative around the work of the International Institute,” Obenson said.

To Obenson, the decrease in dependency on federal funding proved that the International Institute of St. Louis had outgrown being simply an immigrant and refugee service provider.

“St. Louis cannot only be dependent on refugees that are sent to St Louis by the federal government. That, in itself, is important and significant but does not meet the trajectory of growth that is necessary for us to turn around the declining population of settlers,” Obsenson said. “There is much more than just welcoming and putting refugees in homes.” Read on….Read on….