Interim CEO of YW Boston Named Permanent Leader
By Max Stendahl Digital Editor, Boston Business Journal
Beth Chandler, who was named interim CEO of YW Boston after the nonprofit’s previous leader, Sylvia Ferrell-Jones, retired last September shortly before she died of cancer, has been named permanent CEO.
YW Boston, the full name of which is the YWCA of Boston, announced Chandler’s appointment on Tuesday. She has been serving as interim CEO since Ferrell-Jones stepped down in September due to her illness. Ferrell-Jones died in November at the age of 60.
Ferrell-Jones had led the nonprofit — the nation’s first YWCA, which got its start in 1866 as the Boston Young Women’s Christian Association — since 2007, leading the organization through a rebranding effort in 2012 to reflect YW’s mission to combat racial disparities and social change.
Chandler, a former professional basketball player who got her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and an MBA from Columbia Business School, previously held leadership roles at national nonprofit the Achievement Network and the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation.
“For more than two decades, I have worked to further the rights of women and people of color,” Chandler said in a statement. “It’s an honor to lead the YW as it works to empower all individuals, while also reshaping the power dynamic within corporations and organizations in our city so they are more equitable, and therefore stronger and more productive.”