The Boys & Girls Clubs in Portage and Baraboo have a new CEO.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of West-Central Wisconsin has hired Amber Duddy as its new chief executive officer following the January departure of Karen DeSanto, who spent 12 years in the role. Duddy will take over as CEO on April 29.
Duddy is the former executive director of Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin, a Community Action Agency serving Dane, Jefferson, and Waukesha Counties, where she helped to improve donor cultivation, fiscal management, and human resource management systems.
“Creating inclusive spaces for youth to spark interests and learn new skills is critical to ensuring the next generation can thrive,” Duddy said in a statement. “I look forward to collaborating with our staff, boards, and community partners to foster new opportunities for all our members and their families.”
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The Boys & Girls Clubs of West-Central Wisconsin serves more than 8,000 youths through membership and community outreach each year in Portage, Baraboo, Tomah and Reedsburg.
The first club opened in Tomah in 2000. The Boys & Girls Club of Baraboo/Sauk County was founded in September 2001. In late 2007, the club in Baraboo closed its doors due to a cash shortage. But, after a massive three-month push to raise community support, the club reopened in February 2008.
The organization opened its third location in the City of Reedsburg in 2017. The clubhouse is located in a newly renovated space that once was a hardware store. The community sought out the Boys & Girls Clubs of West-Central Wisconsin when it began envisioning a club to serve youths. After just over a year of fundraising, the club exceeded its financial goal, and the facility was opened.
The Portage club opened last year and is located in the former Rusch Elementary School building, following an extensive two-year community fundraising campaign. The growing program has exceeded its start-up goals, the Boys & Girls Club of West-Central Wisconsin said.
The Boys & Girls Club of West-Central Wisconsin conducted its search for its next leader with help from the Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s CEO Search Team.
As CEO, Duddy will lead the organization’s strategic direction, have oversight of organizational operations, financials, programming, brand reputation, talent recruitment, resource development and stakeholder relationships.
She will also serve as the organization’s primary ambassador and lead communicator. Duddy, in partnership with her team, will oversee the organization’s clubhouses.
As a first-generation college graduate, Duddy earned a bachelor’s degree in community health promotion and public policy from Western Michigan University and a master’s degree in human resources and organizational development from Eastern Michigan University.
Karen DeSanto is stepping down as CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of West-Central Wisconsin. Under her leadership, the chapter has added locations in Reedsburg and Portage, along with Baraboo and Tomah.
Duddy began her career working for a 21st Century Community Learning Center in Michigan, where she helped to improve the quality of the organization’s afterschool program.
She later worked for the Michigan State University Systems exChange, where she helped local community agencies alter their healthcare systems to improve Medicaid outcomes and reduce health disparities, at the same time she served as director of community health for a regional nonprofit where she assisted in the management of multiple public health workforce development grants.
Duddy also has experience managing federal grants related to adolescent health, injury prevention and preventative health care services, from her time as an adolescent health consultant at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
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