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The New York-based Girl Scouts of the USA announced Wednesday it
had selected Chávez as its new chief executive officer—the first
Latina to serve in the position.
``We wanted to find someone who had a strong leadership story of
her own whose journey in life could serve as a shining example
for all of our girls,'' said Connie Lindsay, the national
president of the organization and a member of the search
committee.
Chávez, 43, has been the chief executive of Girl Scouts of
Southwest Texas since 2009. She will be taking over for CEO
Kathy Cloninger, who is retiring after leading an overhaul of
the leadership organization's programs and direction over the
past eight years.
Chávez, born in Arizona, was raised in the small town of Eloy,
about 50 miles northwest of Tucson, before the family moved to
Phoenix. She said the experience of being a member of Girl Scout
Troop 304 in Eloy was formative.
``One of my best friends came to school one day and said she was
going to be a Girl Scout, and I decided that was for me, even
though my family hadn't had a tradition of Girl Scouting,'' said
Chávez, speaking by phone from San Antonio.
Before working for the Girl Scouts, Chávez served as an urban
affairs policy adviser to former Arizona governor and current
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and for
other state agencies involved in providing community services.
She also worked for the federal government, including as chief
of staff for the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of
Government Contracting and Minority Enterprise Development.
The Girl Scouts is increasingly seeing its future in the growth
of the Latina community.
The organization, founded in 1912, said it had noted a 55
percent increase in the number of Latina girls who have joined
its ranks over the past 10 years. They now account for about 12
percent—or 272,000 girls—of the nearly 2.3 million girls who are
scouts.
In recent years, the Girl Scouts of the USA has increased its
outreach to the community, including with bilingual public
campaigns. |
