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St. Vincent de Paul Baton Rouge on Friday announced that Sunnie Johnson-Lain has been selected as its new CEO.
Johnson-Lain currently serves as CEO of Catholic Charities Washtenaw County in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She previously served as chief services and strategy officer for St. Vincent de Paul Cincinnati and as director of conferences and community outreach for St. Vincent de Paul Dayton.
She will assume her role as CEO of St. Vincent de Paul Baton Rouge on June 2.
“It is a great honor to have been selected as CEO in the 160th year of SVdP in Baton Rouge. … I look forward to leading the society in Baton Rouge into its next chapter and am eager to meet SVdP’s many neighbors and friends in Baton Rouge,” a statement from Johnson-Lain reads.
Johnson-Lain replaces longtime St. Vincent de Paul Baton Rouge CEO Michael Acaldo, who stepped away from his role in September after being named CEO of the National Council of the U.S. Society of St. Vincent de Paul in St. Louis. He began his tenure as St. Vincent de Paul Baton Rouge CEO in 1990.
The hunt for Acaldo’s replacement kicked off in February. Baton Rouge-based Connectly Recruiting and Washington, D.C.-based The Boland Group were tapped by St. Vincent de Paul Baton Rouge’s board of directors to conduct the search with the oversight of a committee of eight current and former board members.
Acaldo is credited for having led the local organization through its transformation from a small entity into one of the largest and most respected St. Vincent de Paul organizations in the country.
Under his purview, St. Vincent de Paul Baton Rouge significantly expanded its services for at-risk and homeless populations in the Greater Baton Rouge area, adding five shelters with a capacity to house more than 200 people, including families. The organization has also come to operate a dining room that feeds 300,000 annually, four thrift stores, a pharmacy that fills approximately $700,000 of prescription medicine each year and a community dental service. Local Vincentians of St. Vincent de Paul also conduct thousands of home visits each year.
