WaCASA names its new executive director!
After a long and intensive search, Barbara James has been named Executive Director of Washington State CASA!
Most recently, Barbara led an award-winning twenty two year old academic organization, Read 2 Me™ through two mergers. Before moving to the Pacific Northwest four years ago, Barbara spent much of her early career, holding positions of increasing responsibility at Orangewood Children’s Foundation in Southern California where she made her first acquaintance with the work of CASA, and was a founding board member of 44 Women for Children.
With over twenty years of diversified experience with public and private entities both in the corporate and non-profit sectors, her expertise includes building comprehensive fund development departments, overseeing individual, major and deferred charitable gifts, capital campaigns, annual giving programs, special event planning, grant writing, volunteer coordination and marketing and public relations activities.
She looks forward to bringing her breadth of experience, along with her passion to serve the dependent children of Washington to WaCASA, as she strengthens the agency from a position of downturn to a period of growth and increased programming for the CASA volunteers. Because without a CASA volunteer, children are more likely to fall through the cracks of the child welfare system, leading to longer lengths of stay in foster care, and a heightened risk of abuse and neglect.
A resident of Gig Harbor, in her “off” time, Barbara is likely to be found along side her husband, Allan, on the baseball field or selling Girl Scout cookies with their two daughters, Charlotte and Lilly Ann.
