After serving as director of Single Stop USA’s Gulf Coast operations for the past year and interim CEO of the New York City-based nonprofit since August, Christy Reeves has been named CEO.
Reeves, who joined Single Stop last January after directing the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation for eight years, will be tasked with overseeing further national expansion of the anti-poverty organization that focuses on providing tools for upward economic mobility at community colleges.
When Reeves was tapped to lead Single Stop’s Gulf Coast regional office, which is based in Baton Rouge, she led the agency’s charge to expand its presence from Louisiana through the Florida Panhandle. As interim CEO, she then led the organization in adopting a strategic plan that “foresees significant expansion in the breadth and depth of its services,” Single Stop says in a press release.
“Christy has demonstrated the qualities we most seek in national leadership: fiscal and operational acumen; the ability to inspire and motivate staff, partners and donors; the ability to combine vision with action; and, a dedication to Single Stop and its mission,” says Single Stop Board Chair Michael Weinstein in a prepared statement. “We are delighted to make this appointment now, when the organization is about to enter a new phase of growth.”
Single Stop’s unique business model involves using proprietary software to connect at-risk students in the community college system with the hundreds of federal programs, resources, grants and scholarships they are potentially eligible to receive. Since 2007, the nonprofit says it has connected 1 million households in eight states to $3 billion of resources and services. It also helps guide participants through the system, showing them how to apply for assistance and helping them gather all the necessary information to fill out the applications.
In Baton Rouge, the nonprofit has used a $5 million grant from the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to connect more than 1,000 needy individuals to nearly $900,000 in resources and assistance.
With support from major foundations, Single Stop is working to further expand its national footprint, as well as introduce new technology and partnerships designed to enhance the accessibility of benefits and services that will “significantly increase the number of people served,” the company says.
“I am excited to be taking the helm of Single Stop USA as it takes a huge step forward in achieving its most fundamental goal: to dramatically reduce poverty in America and to change millions of lives for the better,” reads a statement from Reeves, who was among Business Report’s 2012 Forty Under 40 class.
Read a Business Report feature from May 2015 on the growth of Single Stop in Baton Rouge.
