Meet RETA
RETA Pregnancy Clinic & Family Resources is committed to providing free, discreet, non-judgmental services for those facing pregnancy. That includes planned or unplanned, parenting challenges, or regret following an abortion decision. They offer pregnancy testing, first trimester ultrasound, STD testing & treatment, abortion pill reversal, parent coaching & resources, and abortion recovery support. RETA has served the Elkhart area since 1985.
A door opens
RETA’s leader, who united the team while also focusing on operational efficiencies, was retiring in six months. The staff was not only worried about losing their family-like, open culture, but also about their mission’s longevity. RETA started looking for a new executive director, who would have large shoes to fill.
The nonprofit’s new executive director would lead the team toward their mission of providing life-affirming services and building Christ-centered families. This person would hopefully demonstrate RETA’s reliability and integrity to the community, clients, churches, and supporters. They needed someone with a servant’s heart and a business mind, who could budget and build relationships—not necessarily at the same time.
Solution
Our executive search team partnered with the staff at RETA to find the ideal person from a pool of qualified candidates. The team held in-depth interviews with the board of directors and many staff members to understand the scope of RETA’s staff culture and the traits a prospective executive director would need to fit in and lead the team well.
The staff at RETA was hoping to find a trustworthy leader with emotional intelligence and maturity, a strategic thinker, a skilled communicator, and above all, someone with a committed personal relationship with Jesus. Some experience leading teams would help this person be equipped to take on the job at RETA, as the executive director would have to confidently and graciously lead directors below themself.
And although the team didn’t expect it, they hoped to find someone with nonprofit or medical experience as well.
Checking all the boxes
From a solid slate of candidates, Stacey Gagnon was chosen as the most qualified for the job. Stacey brings in experience as a teacher, ICU nurse, and a co-founder of a non-profit. Stacey’s experience will allow her to excel as executive director on RETA’s team. She brings all the expertise they needed, and more.
Since Stacey already lived just an hour away in a neighboring Indiana city, she was able to transition smoothly onto the team at RETA. She was welcomed warmly and eagerly, after a positive and efficient search process where the team to celebrated her arrival.
