GYC director has leadership and non-profit experience

After almost three months without an executive director, the Gerdon Youth Center’s Furthering Youth Inc. board has announced that Leigh Ann Loggins has been selected from a field of 28 applicants to oversee fund-raising and administrative efforts at the center.
Loggins, 34, of Louisville, is a Birmingham, Ala., native. She is new to Corydon but not to not-for-profit organizations.
As founder and chairman of the board for Campbell Dream Foundation in Louisville, Loggins’ responsibilities included establishing a board of directors, filing for 501(c)3 not-for-profit status, garnering financial support through corporate partnerships, and meeting with public and private officials to gain political support.
Loggins has worked for Campbell since December 2002.
As a volunteer secretary and member of the board of directors for Supporting Our Community Kid’s School in Louisville, Loggins wrote grants for the not-for-profit which supports after-school programs for inner-city children.
She worked with SOCKS from 2002 through 2004.
A graduate of Stephens College in Columbia, Mo., with a degree in philosophy, rhetoric and law, Loggins also took classes at Cambridge University in England. She has more than four years of experience in high-level international project management in the information technology industry in Sydney, Australia, as well as four years of management experience in the private sector in the United States.
Loggins is also a volunteer for Hospice and Palliative Care of Louisville and a personal life coach.
‘I would really like to set up some kind of endowment program where we don’t have to depend as much on government grants,’ said Loggins, whose first day on the job yesterday coincided with the end of the fiscal year.
‘I’m lucky. I get to start fresh,’ she said.
David Dillman, president of the FYI board, said neither funding nor services have been interrupted or suffered any setbacks as a result of the change in leadership.
The executive director’s position became available after the controversial termination of director Debbie Heazlitt on March 3. Confidence in the center was shaken in the weeks surrounding FYI’s decision.
‘I’m not fully aware of the dynamics of the past,’ Loggins said, but she asked ‘not to be judged on any past events that I have no control over or involvement with.
‘Change is a constant in life, and we have to move through it as smoothly as possible,’ she said.
During upcoming weeks, Loggins said she plans to spend an hour each day with the kids to evaluate programs and establish relationships. She and other candidates met with kids who use the center before a final hiring decision was made.
‘They were a tough crowd,’ she said.
If the position is a good fit for both herself and the center, Loggins said she intends to move to the Corydon area.