The director of the statewide not-for-profit Friends of the Missouri Governor's Mansion is stepping down.
Rebecca Gordon, the director of Friends of the Missouri Governor's Mansion for the past seven years, is resigning at the end of the month.
Friends of the Missouri Governor's Mansion is a statewide not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of the Governor's Mansion and its history.
"It sounds cliche, but I'm exhausted," Gordon said. "Getting through COVID in 2020, which was a challenge for anybody in the business and the nonprofit sector, that was a thing, but then hitting 2021 and it just - I got burnt out. I don't know what else to say, I'm exhausted."
The mansion stopped public tours in the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, but has since resumed.
Gordon said she spent a lot of time talking to colleagues about their experiences with COVID-19 earlier this spring and heard similar sentiment.
She said she will be taking a couple months off.
"I need a break," Gordon said. "I need some time off so that's what I'm going to do. Honestly, my number one goal is just to be able to get my creativity back and find some balance."
Gordon is also an adjunct professor at the National Criminal Justice Training Center at Fox Valley Technical College, a role she intends to remain in.
Gordon said she will be on-call for Friends of the Missouri Governor's Mansion through October and will remain in town for continued support.
Gordon said she began talking to the executive committee about her plans around April and May when her father became ill.
"We're a little bit behind on the curve of getting my position filled, but my original intent was to get up there and spend some time with him," Gordon said. "I hadn't been able to be up there for a year and half."
Gordon said she was able to get a brief visit before he died in August.
Gordon said she wouldn't have made the decision to step down if the organization weren't as stable as it is.
She said Friends of the Missouri Governor's Mansion made smart decisions throughout the pandemic with just a few investments to update the mansion.
"I've spent a lot of years, and blood, sweat and tears building it up, so if they weren't in a good position, I wouldn't have gone," Gordon said.
The Friends of the Missouri Governor's Mansion Executive Committee, along with its Board of Directors, will now put together a hiring committee to find Gordon's replacement.
She said she is also working with them to create interim job descriptions, and they will begin reviewing candidates soon.