The Board of Trustees of Crisis Connections is pleased to announce that they have selected Sylvia Fuerstenberg, MSW from Valtas Group to serve as the interim Chief Executive Officer for Crisis Connections.
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Sylvia has extensive previous experience as a Chief Executive in non-profit social service organizations. More recently, she has served as a consultant and interim executive, assisting social service agencies with successful leadership transitions.

One of the reasons that Sylvia was identified as our top choice is that the mission of Crisis Connections strongly aligns with her values.
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Sylvia is excited to assist the Crisis Connections team in its stellar work assuring that our community is supported in this unprecedented time of crisis.

Puget Soundkeeper is pleased to announce that Elizabeth Lunney has been hired to serve as Interim Executive Director. 

As a Senior Associate with the Valtas Group, she provides interim executive support, organizational assessment and transition planning for nonprofits looking to use executive transition as an opportunity to strengthen the organization and prepare it for future challenges. 
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Elizabeth is an accomplished nonprofit and community leader, with deep roots in the outdoors and conservation community.  For more than a decade, she was the Executive Director for Washington Trails Association, served as Interim Executive Director for the Mountaineers, Northwest Natural Resource Group and a number of other local environmental organizations, and serves on the boards of the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust and Resource Media.  

We are pleased to announce that Environmental Works has selected Jess Zimbabwe as the next Executive Director, effective October 26, 2020.
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Jess has an extensive background in design, planning, and nonprofit management. She is currently the Principal of Plot Strategies. Until recently she served for ten years as the founding Director of the Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership, a partnership of the National League of Cities and the Urban Land Institute. Before that, Jess led the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, and served as Community Design Director at Urban Ecology in Oakland. 

​She serves on the boards of Next City, the National Main Street Center, and Colloqate. 

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Maurizio Vecchione as President & CEO of Washington Global Health Alliance (WGHA).

After months of a nationwide search,  with the support of Valtas Group, the Washington Global Health Alliance (WGHA) governance board has selected from an outstanding and diverse pool of candidates, Maurizio Vecchione as their new president and CEO. 
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Maurizio comes to WGHA after almost eight years as executive vice president leading Global Good, a collaboration between Bill Gates and Intellectual Ventures to invent and develop technologies that address some of humanity’s most daunting challenges, with a focus on global health and global development. 

FamilyWorks recently announced that Marcia Wright-Soika will become their new Executive Director.
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Although FamilyWorks’ operations and services are not back to normal due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation, there will be opportunities for you to meet Marcia as she embarks as FamilyWorks new Executive Director in the months ahead.  

​The FamilyWorks Board of Directors empowered a Succession Committee to lead a rigorous search process with support from Valtas Group and in collaboration with staff. Marcia emerged as the ideal leader for FamilyWorks. 

The Board of Directors of Launch recently announced they had selected Angela Griffin as the next Executive Director.

Angela said, “I believe every child has a special purpose. It is our responsibility to intentionally and diligently cultivate and build their potential so they can fully thrive in life and in community. This starts with ensuring children, youth, and families have equitable access to high quality early learning and school age enrichment experiences. We are uniquely positioned to serve our community during a pandemic that has both exposed the fragility of the childcare industry and how essential childcare is to the rebuilding of our economy.”

Angela joins the Launch team as a visionary and inspirational leader with over 27 years of experience, primarily focused on the development and implementation of early learning, childcare and youth development programs. ​

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Deborah Jensen as Executive Director of Audubon Washington.
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Deborah has over 25 years of executive experience leading conservation, education and scientific organizations.

​While CEO at the Woodland Park Zoo she led a successful public-private partnership with the city of Seattle, expanded the zoo’s field conservation programs to 35 projects worldwide, created the zoo’s first sustainability plan, and oversaw the opening of Zoomazium the first Leed Gold certified building at any zoo. 

We are pleased to announce that Paula Sardinas has been appointed as the new CEO and President of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound. Paula’s selection comes after a rigorous and inclusive search process facilitated by Ed Rogan of the Valtas Group in partnership with a committee of current and former Board Members led by Vice Chair Maurice James.
 
Paula’s personal connection to their mission, her diverse managerial experience, her background serving youth, and her commitment to equity and diversity make her a perfect fit to lead the next era of Big Brothers Big Sisters.

​Helping to build and execute our next five-year strategic plan, innovate their programs, tighten their connection to the communities they serve, and develop and evolve a staff are but a few of the hats she’ll wear as the new CEO & President. 

We are pleased to announce that Valtas Group client Susan G. Komen® has selected Molly O’Connor as the new executive director.

Molly joins their team from Thrive Washington, where her leadership helped thousands of families connect with vital early childhood information and interventions and brought together dozens of state and local organizations to better coordinate and leverage their efforts to support the state’s youngest children.
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She is a great addition to Komen’s mission of fighting breast cancer and ensuring all communities have access to life-saving early detection and treatment support.

We are pleased to announce Dr. Lisa Chin has been selected as Treehouse’s new CEO.

Lisa previously served as President and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of King County and Executive Director of Year Up Puget Sound.

​​Lisa is a visionary with a proven track record as a transformational leader. She’s spent her nonprofit career focused on young people, education equity and systems change work that provides opportunity to those who need it most. She has all the qualities that will benefit the children, youth and young adults in foster care as Treehouse prepares to weather new challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.