New CEO Joins JFS September 3
At the beginning of July, the board of directors of Jewish Family Service of St. Paul (JFS) announced the selection of Ruth Hampton Olkon as Chief Executive Officer effective September 3.
Ruth previously held the position of Manager of Community Health Improvement at Allina Health where she expanded services to help drive better health outcomes in under-served communities. She was also previously assistant director of JFS from 2005 to 2011.
Ruth comes back to the agency as a passionate leader committed to our mission and programs. She has a proven track record in creating, growing and evaluating social service programming by leveraging strong fiscal management and enthusiastic leadership. Ruth will help further the mission of JFS along with further implementing our strategic plan by focusing on revenue diversification along with program evaluation, quality and diversity. As she comes on board, Ruth will focus on the 2020 budget, office space limitations due to significant growth and staff changes in light of the retirement of this year’s Celebration of Service honorees Chris Rosenthal, Irina Margolin and Dora Lender.
We all look forward to the heart and energy Ruth will bring to the agency as we grow from strength to strength.