Retired President And Executive Director
CurrentOn June 30, 2017, I retired from Blind Children's Learning Center as President and Executive Director. I had the pleasure of serving in this capacity for more than five years, working with my management team, the board of directors and Jeri Konopisos, BOD Chair. I'm very proud of our accomplishments which have benefited the Center and families we serve:• We nearly doubled enrollment of typically developing students by re-branding our Early Childhood Center program as "Bright Visions." This increased annual revenue by nearly $250,000 and allowed children from the community to learn alongside students with visual impairments. • We applied for and received our license from the state of California and accreditation as a non-public school to serve children with visual impairments through second grade, allowing our Kindergarten class to have two additional years at the Center.•We overcame an unhealthy deficit in 2013 and today, thanks to our generous supporters, have a $2.7 million balanced budget with healthy reserves of $1.5 million.Colleen Roach is the incoming President and Executive Director of Blind Children's Learning Center. Colleen was offered the position following an extensive search led by the Board of Directors. My goal in giving 12 months notice of my retirement was to give the search committee enough time to find the best candidate to lead and represent the organization I care for so deeply.Jeff Hipshman has followed Jeri Konopisos as Board Chair of Blind Children's Learning Center. Jeff is a Partner at HMWC CPAs & Business Advisors and has served on the Board since 2009, most recently as Finance Chair.I'm truly grateful to have had the opportunity to lead a devoted staff of 53 who see to the success of excellent programs to benefit these deserving children from birth to age 21. Please join me in continuing to support Blind Children's Learning Center.
