By LAINE GRIFFIN
Daily News-Record 6/28/19
HARRISONBURG — The search is over. The Boys & Girls Club of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County named Sandra Quigg as the new executive director.
Quigg will replace Lori Kizner, who served as the executive director for about four years but resigned in April to join her husband, Scott Kizner, who took the superintendent post in Stafford County last summer.
Quigg said she is ready to take over, although she knows she has big shoes to fill.
“I think I’ve always been interested in community impact,” Quigg said in an interview Thursday. “Through the lens I look at, the Boys & Girls Club is in that impact.”
Quigg, who has been involved in the nonprofit world for more than 20 years, will begin her new job July 8.
Quigg received her bachelor’s of arts in English from the University of Richmond and most recently received a master’s in organizational leadership from Eastern Mennonite University.
Currently, she works at Friendship Industries as the director of organizational sustainability and has held that position since 2012. Friendship Industries is a nonprofit packaging company in Harrisonburg that employs people with disabilities. For seven years, she also served as the director of development at Friendship Industries until taking time off from the nonprofit to do other community work. She worked at the Arts Council of the Valley, which is a community resource that offers grants to artists and art educators and helps coordinate city events among other things, according to its website.
She has also worked in the James Madison Corporate and Foundation Relations.
“One of the things I was looking for is an organization that touches the entire community and the Boys & Girls Club has that reach in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County,” she said.
She said the group’s mission was extremely attractive to her.
The nonprofit’s mission statement is “to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to realize their full potential as productive, caring and responsible citizens.”
The organization operates seven club sites, three in Rockingham County and four in Harrisonburg, including its headquarters in the Lucy F. Simms Continuing Education Center, 620 Simms Ave.
Quigg competed against 57 other applicants for the position.
An executive search committee made up of six members of the local club’s board of directors, two community business leaders and one representative from the national organization — Boys & Girls Club of America — were a part of the hiring process, according to Doug Driver, the president of the executive board for the local club.
Driver said she was chosen as the new executive director because she is a professional executive with extensive experience in project management and resource development with nonprofit organizations.
But by being a mother, she brings even more to the table.
“She is a mother of three and has been a member of our community for many years, so she has an understanding of children and an appreciation for our local culture,” Driver said.
Quigg has lived in Harrisonburg since 1998 and resides with her husband, John McGehee, and her sons Malcom, William and Maren. She said her values with her children align closely with the Boys & Girls Club.
“I think parenting is the one leadership position that is very emotionally charged, so I think it gives you that kind of experience to lead by example,” Quigg said. “Also, the challenges they provide, I’ll see some of that reflect in some of the kids we assist at the Boys & Girls Club.”
Quigg said she is eager to begin her new job and spend time getting to know the unit directors, other staff and the kids.
She said the hardest part for her will be making sure she doesn’t jump in and do anything too quickly.
“You need to observe and understand,” she said. “When you get excited, it’s important to curb that enthusiasm and make sure you have enough knowledge to move forward with any ideas.”