The Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) last week nominated longtime community activist and consensus-builder Geneva T. Malenfant as the organization's new president.

If approved by the CCA membership, Malenfant will succeed R. Philip Dowds, who has led the progressive organization for the past two years.

CCA leaders interviewed yesterday commended Malenfant as a leader who will strive to build unity in an organization recently criticized for alienating many of its members by not including them in the group's planning process.

Julia Gregory, a current CCA vice-president said Malenfant will bring a "grass-roots" leadership style to the CCA.

"Geneva works closely with all of the people that she's involved with in an organization," Gregory said. "She's been associated with the CCA for a long time and has a good relationship with many CCA members both past and present and an extraordinarily wide network of associates across the city."

And John R. Moot, a longtime CCA member, said Malenfant represents "a major improvement over Phil Dowds."

"She's much more able to get unity among people and able to work with people," Moot said. "It is a very good sign for the CCA."

Under Dowds' leadership, many CCA members felt unwanted by the organization, said Robert Winters, a Harvard math preceptor, CCA member and former City Council candidate.

"Since [I paid my CCA membership dues], I have gotten neither a news letter, a phone call, nor a how-do-I-do," he said. "The organization essentially been non-existent for the entire year."

Winters said he expects Malenfant's leadership to represent a period of more openness within the CCA.

"This great divide may very well become a thing of the past," he said. "[Malenfant's appointment] makes people like myself who have never quite bought into the CCA line feel like there's hope."

But Elaine Kistiakowsky, chair of the committee that nominated Malenfant, said Dowds' leadership did not influence the decision to replace him.

"I am a great admirer of Phil Dowds," she said. "I would love to have him working on anything I'd love to accomplish."

Kistiakowsky said Dowds has already served for two years, the typical maximum time served by a CCA president.

"It should not be forgotten that to change every two years is how we do things," she said. "The organization is in a very strong position to carry on, shall I say, for another 50 years."