Carrie Wall, president and CEO of the YMCA of Dane County, has been busy reinventing the “Y” and just in the nick of time. Her urban perspective detected local demographic shifts that many Madisonians were slow to see.
As the founding CEO and chair of the Wisconsin Alliance of YMCAs, which works to support the holistic development of young children, she and her cohorts refuse to stand by and watch problems unfold. Her work in early childhood education, her efforts to close the education gap and ease racial tensions, and the fact she has changed the way schools look at the “Y” as a strategic partner in education are among the reasons she is one of six local women to be honored in our 2016 Women of Industry awards program.
She’s proud to have been part of the Y’s transformation because the organization replicates her life with its focus on children and family. “Anything I’ve done has been all about the way I grew up, following in my parents footsteps, and while that wasn’t in the YMCA world, it was all about being a servant leader and how we give back to the community,” she states. “I’m not done and I’m still a work in progress, I’ll tell you that. I just have a very strong passion and purpose to affect positive change.”
Ask ‘Y’
In the six-and-a-half years she has lead the local YMCA, that servitude has brought outreach in closing the educational achievement gap and promoting better police-community relations, but her association with the Y was a happy accident. Filled with the entrepreneurial spirit at an early age, Wall originally pursued a business degree and wanted to forge a career in business, but her role with the YMCA gave her everything she was looking for — a chance to express that spirit, work with people who shared her values, and raise a family. As a mother, she was well aware of the issues that affect women and children and so was the YMCA.
The Y in YMCA could stand for youth development because for more than 30 years its focus has been on teaching young people the value of healthy living and social responsibility. In 2010, when she became the first women to serve as president and CEO for the YMCA of Dane County, she led in the development of a strategic plan that includes collaboration, partnerships, and growth to impact young lives, enhancing the organization’s status as the area’s largest provider of early childhood programming.
Other Wisconsin YMCAs have stepped up their game as members of the Wisconsin Alliance of YMCAs, which has evolved into strong collaborative of community change agents. Wall’s work with through the Alliance is also focused on the financial stability and mission-focused success of all of the YMCAs in Wisconsin. At this point, 31 YMCAs across Wisconsin have formed their own 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations to raise philanthropic gifts and to advocate for public policies that support families.
With greater collaboration and more partnerships at the statewide level, the Alliance has cultivated better connections between individual YMCAs and statewide organizations. For example, the Alliance has worked with healthTIDE to emphasize strategies to reduce the incidence of childhood obesity, and it has partnered with the American Cancer Society and American Heart Association to advocate for policies that promote health.
As the founding CEO and chair of the Alliance, Wall believes the YMCAs in Wisconsin must collaborate in new ways to promote the holistic development of young children. Healthy food policies and childhood obesity prevention and development is a major thrust of the Alliance’s Y5210 program in Wisconsin — five fruits and vegetables daily, no more than two hours of screen time, one hour of physical activity, and zero sugary drinks (5210). Wall also has worked with area restaurants to identify and serve healthy food options for children, and she has been instrumental in helping the University of Wisconsin physicians be part of the delivery of 5210 in their clinics, changing the messaging for all families about healthy living.
Dan Newhouse, retired resource director for the YMCA of the USA, characterized Wall as a visionary thinker. “She sees very clearly the larger impact possibilities of the YMCAs work in chronic disease prevention, achievement gap issues with our youth, and a variety of areas where the YMCA is likely the best positioned non-profit to have a significant impact in the overall health of people throughout Wisconsin and across the country,” Newhouse states. “Youth obesity is a significant piece of that work. Carrie has worked hard within the YMCA organization and outside of the YMCA in our communities to advocate for a more aggressive approach to addressing these issues. She has truly been an inspirational leader in all areas of health and education.”
Wall’s finely tuned societal radar also resulted in a new program called “Friday Nights at the Y,” which began as a result of racial tensions in the community. Under her direction, the program has built relationships and trust between more than 1,000 teens of color and the Madison police and fire departments.
Wall, who grew up in Milwaukee, believes that Madisonians were slow to recognize demographic changes that were occurring and was surprised to see the disconnect between police and teens, in part because teenagers served on the Y’s staff. The Friday Night program was formed with input from Mayor Soglin and the Madison Police and Fire Departments. During those discussions, Wall found that law enforcement agencies were also interested in diversity and struggling to diversify their own ranks.
The organization decided to hold the program on Fridays during the summer and police and firefighters eagerly took part in sports and recreational activities with kids. It has since expanded to different Y branches, including Sun Prairie, and it has grown programmatically with the addition of life-skill sessions.
“It really has become a community of support to engage teens in positive behaviors,” Wall says, “and give them that glimmer about future possibilities. This is what the Y is. This is what the Y should be.”
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It’s elementary
In addition, her work in collaboration with seven different school districts (29 schools in all) is leading the way in collaborative after-school programs to close the achievement gap for area children. The Y’s after school program is the largest provider of quality, healthy, out-of-school time for elementary age children in Dane County.
Wall notes the YMCA collaborates rather than competes with public schools, and could not standby when the extent of the achievement gap between white and minority students became startlingly evident. The organization feels compelled to be part of the solution because of the number of young children it touches each day. “While we’ve always been involved in childcare for all ages, we realized when the gaps became really evident that we can’t just put that on the schools,” she states. “We are a part of that, so we have to be part of the solution.”
Health education is another focus. Wall has implemented many of the YMCA of the USA’s evidence-based chronic disease programs in Dane County, including Livestrong (cancer survivorship program) and the Y Diabetes Prevention Program for pre-Type 2 diabetes participants. There also has been some exertion in the form of EXERT, an mild cognitive impairment (MPI) study with the University of Wisconsin and the National Institutes of Health that measures the impact of exercise on the brain and is currently assessing the implementation of a Parkinson’s (P4P) and arthritis enhanced fitness program.
Wall, one of five CEOs elected to the Y of the USA National Board, helped set the tone for the YMCA to become a leading provider of community-based health interventions through the delivery of evidence-based programs. She joined the Y’s National Healthy Living Strategic Planning Team in 2014, where she was instrumental in setting the path for Y-USA to become the first community-based organization to receive an American Medical Association designated reimbursement code for a community-based health intervention.
Leading a movement
Kent Johnson, executive vice president and COO of the YMCA of the USA, says Wall is not only a leader within the Y Movement in Wisconsin, she is truly a national level leader, having filled leadership roles and serving as a member of the national board of directors. “Her long career in the Y has helped prepare her to lead statewide initiatives in healthy living and child development,” Johnson notes. “She has a rare blend of operational prowess combined with a strategic mindset that allows her to not only visualize the needs of those communities served by the Y, but also accomplish what is necessary to affect real change.”
Wall notes that in serving the YMCA, she was “living in a man’s world” and to this day, it’s looked upon as a men’s organization, but her contributions have certainly given the Y a woman’s touch. “Finding a way to be one of the pioneering women CEOs in the movement, the Y movement across the nation, is probably an accomplishment that I’ll look back on someday and say, ‘That’s a big deal,’ but right now I look at it not as an accomplishment but a responsibility. Part of that responsibility is to help keep opening the doors for women in the YMCA movement.”
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