After completing a national search and selection process, the YWCA Madison board of directors and selection committee has unanimously decided to name Gery Paredes Vásquez as the permanent CEO of the organization, YWCA Madison announced in a press release on Tuesday.
“Gery Paredes Vasquez has displayed a deep commitment to YWCA Madison and its mission for many years,” YWCA Madison’s Board President Angela Arrington and Vice President Monica Mims said in a statement. “Gery’s commitment deepened over the last four months as Interim CEO in which she has brought refreshing leadership that will continue the advancement of the organization’s ideals and the communities it serves.”
Paredes Vásquez, who had been serving as Interim CEO, succeeds Vanessa McDowell-Atlas, YWCA-Madison’s former CEO, who recently joined a new organization called Black Girl Ventures as its Chief Operating Officer (COO) after 9 years with YWCA Madison.
YWCA Madison is “dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all,” according to its mission. Paredes Vásquez started at YWCA Madison in 2012 as a volunteer racial justice facilitator, before becoming coordinator and manager in this same department. She eventually became the Race and Gender Equity Director in 2018.
During her tenure, Paredes Vásquez built on 13 years of racial justice work in this department and spearheaded numerous collaborative initiatives with her team and a diverse range of individuals and organizations, both locally and nationally, according to a press release from YWCA Madison.
“During her tenure, Gery built on and deepened the department’s offerings informed by her commitment to holistic learning, unlearning, and collective healing for racial justice. She spearheaded numerous collaborative initiatives with a diverse range of individuals/organizations in Madison and across the country for workplace equity and intersectional movement building,” YWCA Madison said in a statement. “As she led the co-creation of the Race & Gender Equity team’s offerings, she has also been a crucial contributor to the internal work within YWCA Madison to align practice with values.”
Among Gery’s significant contributions over the past six years is her leadership in the co-creation of the annual YWCA Racial Justice Summit which has become one of the largest multiracial, intergenerational, and interdisciplinary community gatherings in the United States. Registration for the 2024 Racial Justice Summit, which will take place Sept. 25-27, is now open.
