Valtas completes successful search for Special Olympics Washington who recently welcomed 
David Wu as the organization’s new president and chief executive officer. 
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Wu comes to Special Olympics Washington with more than 30 years of executive-level experience in development and fundraising, marketing, government affairs, and public and private partnerships. 

King Conservation District is pleased to announce that Rebecca Lavigne has been hired to serve as Interim Executive Director.

With interim leadership in place, KCD begins the next chapter for better ground. Rebecca will support the continuity of KCD’s programs and services while facilitating internal work to position the organization for an even stronger future. The interim role also allows the Board of Supervisors needed time and space to prepare for conducting a search for permanent executive leadership.
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Known as a thoughtful and collaborative strategic leader, Rebecca brings 15 years of experience guiding organizations and teams through times of growth, change, and transition. She also draws on more than 15 years of conservation experience in King County and Washington state, including leading community engagement programs and building public-private partnerships. 

We are pleased to announce that Bryan Murphy-Eustis, MBA, MPH, is joining The Max Foundation’s Executive Team as Vice President of Programs.
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Bryan joins the team with more than 18 years of experience building and leading high-impact mission-driven teams, most recently as Commercialization Lead for Medical Technologies at Global Good at Intellectual Ventures.

Previously he served as Executive Director of PIH Liberia and Chief Operating Officer of Ebola Responses at Partners in Health, where he led clinical and operational teams that rapidly initiated and scaled services to 20 treatment facilities across two countries.

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.