From USA TODAY…
Hispanic attorney named new Girl Scouts CEO
By Michelle Healy, USA TODAY
Anna Maria Chavez remembers joining Girl Scouts at age 10 and loving the crafts, cooking and camping adventures.
Growing up in tiny Eloy, Ariz., “we didn’t go camping much when I was little, so this was a great experience,” says Chavez, a Texas attorney selected Wednesday as the new CEO of the 3.2 million-member Girls Scouts of the USA.
Travel opportunities with Girl Scouts were particularly meaningful, giving Chavez “the first opportunity I had to go away by myself, without my family. It really opened my eyes and gave me a certain amount of courage.”
Today, building courage, confidence and character is the expressed goal of the 99-year-old organization, which says it also teaches girls and young women the value and power of leadership and service through its programs and activities, including financial literacy, environmental conservation, math and science education and health.
Girl Scouts “provides a pipeline to leadership in this country,” says Kathy Cloninger, the outgoing CEO, who is retiring after leading the organization for eight years.
Although many know Girl Scouts for its “wonderful cookie program, Girl Scouts has a wonderful story of preparing women for leadership that may not be out there in the public domain,” says Chavez, 43, who has been CEO of Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas since 2009.
Prior to that, she worked in numerous federal and state government positions, including as a deputy chief of staff for urban relations and community redevelopment for Janet Napolitano, former Arizona governor and current U.S. secretary of Homeland Security. Napolitano is herself a lifetime Girl Scout member.
“It’s living the American dream to start as a girl member several decades ago and now be part of the national leadership team,” says Chavez, a Mexican-American who will be the first person of color to lead the group, which includes 2.3 million girl members and nearly 880,000 adult members.
Like most non-profits, the Girl Scouts organization has been affected by the battered economy, but has remained strong, says David Thompson, vice president of public policy for the National Council of Nonprofits. Girl Scouts is “a premiere name-brand non-profit that has gone through transition, transformation, reorganization and restructuring. It’s led the non-profit community in that regard. It’s done a great job of adjusting its mission to where there are girls in need of support and leadership training,” he says.
Among recent initiatives was a national brand campaign, a new program portfolio for girls built around “leadership journeys,” as well as consolidating the number of Girl Scout councils, or local offices, from 312 to 112.
“We had no idea the economy was going to sink when we started with the mergers,” says Cloninger. “But we ended up in a better position to weather the economy than if we had stayed with many of the smaller staffs. We were able to operate with a greater economy of scale.”
Girl Scouts still service “every ZIP code,” says Cloninger, whose tenure also saw an extensive outreach to girls in traditionally underserved communities, including minority and immigrant populations, isolated rural communities, public housing, homeless shelters and juvenile detention centers.
A targeted effort to take Girl Scouts to the growing Hispanic population resulted in a nearly 55% membership increase between 2000 and 2010, says Cloninger.
“We are still looking for opportunities to serve more girls in more communities. We’re still committed to reflecting the nation’s diversity,” she says.
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