AIDS Care Director Says She Will Resign

AIDS Care Director Edie Brown, who has led her agency through two years of dramatic growth, announced Friday that she will resign her post.

Brown said she is stepping down because she felt incapable of handling the amount of fund-raising the job now requires.

“My goals have been organizational,” she said. “At this point, we need someone who can raise the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to sustain this organization’s astronomical growth.”

The nonprofit agency, which provides services to county residents affected by HIV or AIDS, went from serving 89 clients in 1991 to 228 clients in 1992. “Next year it’s going to go even higher,” Brown said.

While Brown led the agency, AIDS Care moved from cramped offices on Main Street to larger quarters at the former Bard Hospital in downtown Ventura.

AIDS Care expects to raise $325,000 this year and $500,000 in 1994, according to Janiece Bulgin, a member of the group’s board. “Edie has been a fantastic administrator, but she’s not real willing to do the kind of fund-raising that we’re going to need in coming years,” Bulgin said.

Bulgin said Brown deserves praise for the two years she has put into the group.

“She’s taken this organization from the grass-roots level to something much bigger,” Bulgin said. “She’ll really be missed.”

“I’m sorry to see that she’s leaving,” said board member Steve Bailey. “She’s done a great deal to build up the agency.”

Brown said she would stay on as director until December so she can help the board in a search for her replacement.