President/CEO Carrie Pickett-Erway

Our President/CEO, Carrie Pickett-Erway, is profiled in the February issue of Encore magazine. Here's an excerpt:

When Juan Olivarez left his position as president and CEO of the Kalamazoo Community Foundation in May 2011 to become a college president, Carrie Pickett-Erway didn't intend to apply for her boss's job. After all, she'd only been the foundation's vice president of community investment for six months.

Then the foundation's board of trustees, led by chairperson Barbara James, interrupted its national search for Olivarez' successor to suggest to Pickett-Erway that she apply for the job. Pickett-Erway had what they were looking for, says James. In addition to her dozen years of experience at the foundation, she had something else the board felt was critical for the job: "a deep a commitment to and love for this community," says James.

Click here to read the whole story by Kaye Bennett.