Friends of Youth to rehire Pottmeyer
Published 11:07 am Monday, June 29, 2015
Friends of Youth’s Board of Directors has announced that it will rehire its former President and CEO, Terry Pottmeyer to once again lead the youth serving agency. In order to pursue personal and professional goals, Pottmeyer transitioned out of the top job last December after leading the agency through the successful completion of a two year, $7 million capital campaign, including construction of seven new facilities, and increasing the agency’s programming for youth and its budget by more than 40 percent.
“When I joined Friends of Youth in January of 2010 the great recession had taken a tremendous toll on the children, youth and families we serve. By 2011 we had seen a 46 percent increase in the number of homeless youth seeking our services, deeply concerning increases in depression, suicide and substance abuse rates, and an unprecedented upswing in undocumented youth escaping trafficking and abuse,” Pottmeyer said.
“Our response was strong, sustained, ambitious—and exhausting. As difficult as it was to leave Friends of Youth, I knew there would never be a better time to pass the baton to a new leader.”
The Board conducted a nine-month search and had the opportunity to clearly articulate the qualities and characteristics the agency would need in its next leader.
“We met many strong candidates in our search, and are very grateful to them for their interest in our work,” said Board chair Terry Hall. “What this process has shown us is that Friends of Youth has an exciting future in fulfilling our mission of serving the needs of at-risk youth in our communities. We needed a CEO that had the experience and talents of Terry Pottmeyer. The board realized that Terry was the best person to lead us and undertook conversations with her about returning to her previous role. Under Terry’s leadership Friends of Youth is poised to continue to respond to the ever changing needs of the youth we serve and continue to be a thought leader for the community serving at-risk youth.”
Pottmeyer will rejoin the agency on a part time basis in July, fulfilling her current commitment as the part time Interim Executive Director at Attain Housing. She expects to return full time by the end of the summer.
