The executive director of Gathering for Women resigns amid an embezzlement investigation.

The executive director of the homeless service provider Gathering for Women, under investigation for allegedly embezzling over $100,000 from a previous nonprofit she managed, has resigned.

In an email sent Tuesday afternoon, Gathering’s board announced Jennifer Dalton had stepped down and that Kate Daniels Kurz, who most recently served as chief of staff to county Supervisor Mary Adams, was stepping in as interim director until a permanent director could be recruited.

The Weekly broke the news of the investigation in its Jan. 31 issue. It stemmed from a statement given at the Monterey County Bar Association’s December meeting, during which outgoing president Chris Panetta announced the organization’s former executive director – Dalton – had paid back more than $106,000 and that new accounting practices had been put into place.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Berkley Brannon says that around the time of the meeting, a representative of the bar association asked the District Attorney’s Office to investigate a possible case of embezzlement.

In the Gathering email, Dalton, who had joined Gathering in 2017, writes, “I do not wish for my resignation to present as a distraction for this organization or to interfere with its mission to provide for homeless women in need.”

Kurz’s first day on the job is Feb. 8. Before joining Adams’ staff, she served as editor of The Women’s International Perspective (The WIP), a publication of the Middlebury Institute, a news site devoted to publishing the work of women from across the globe. It was designed as a platform for women to write about women’s issues, the economy, world politics, education and the arts.

“I hope to give Gathering some continuity and keep the programs open and keep the donors’ confidence that things are going to move forward,” Kurz says. “I hope to help them find the right person to lead, and you need boots on the ground to make sure programs will continue.”