New Faces, New Leaders
ILM organizations with new bosses
From area nonprofits to housing leaders, several women have taken on head roles at Wilmington-area organizations. Though relatively new in their positions, they are leading longtime groups that reach throughout the community. They recently shared insights with WILMA into their lives and goals they hold for their groups in the new year.
Katrina Redmon
Wilmington Housing Authority CEO
Katrina Redmon (Above) came to Wilmington to start her new position in August, but she has always been a North Carolinian.
“My parents told me the world was limitless and I could do whatever I wanted,” she says.
Coming from a background where her strengths were encouraged, Redmon finished Greensboro College with a bachelor of science degree in accounting and legal administration. She flirted with medical school and law school, but women had little counseling on how to make it in those days.
“I didn’t know how to pay for it, so I didn’t go,” she says.
Redmon developed a persistent approach that paid off. She is a certified public accountant, a chartered global management accountant, a certified economic development finance professional, a real estate broker, and has served on multiple boards of directors.
“I’ve been one of the first females in my positions,” she says. “I was one of the first female CFOs of a construction company. I’m proud of that.”
Coming from private industry to the housing authority in Winston-Salem, she rose from chief financial officer to vice president/chief development officer. There, she initiated a 130-acre master plan, when the agency only controlled thirty-five to forty acres, and worked with partners to make a viable plan.
“I love a challenge,” Redmon says. “To be a woman in corporate America, you must love a challenge or you will never make it. There still is a glass ceiling, but there have been a lot of cracks in that ceiling. I feel fortunate to have been able to crawl through one of those cracks.”
The Wilmington Housing Authority works on providing affordable housing for low-income residents and operates a number of public housing developments in the city.
In her view, the agency is a business with a social purpose, one that involves management, real estate development, and housing assistance.
Redmon believes the group has to operate under private industry principals and standards to get a return on investment. While 85 percent of the agency’s funding comes from federal sources now, she’d like to see it become more independent.
“I need to attract talent, fund the business, and fund the next projects and services,” Redmon says. “Our major purpose is to transform communities, remove blight, and act as a catalyst for private investment to come in. I am nothing if not determined.”
At the same time, the WHA contributes over $17 million locally in payments to landlords and to vendors for goods and services, she says.
There may be no end to her accomplishments. Redmon has also co-authored a book. But when she isn’t working, she loves traveling, eating, golfing, photography, whitewater rafting, parasailing, and any time on the water.
Redmon and her husband find it soothing to strike out on a long road trip to an interesting place. When asked about her favorite location to visit, Bar Harbor, Maine, in the fall at sunset brings a smile to her face.
“I am very fortunate to have an understanding husband and understanding family who believe in what I do and work alongside me,” she says. “I could not be more grateful for that.”
Her favorite motto: “When you know better, make sure you do better.”
Sheryl Kingery Mays
Cape Fear Museum of History and Science director
Sheryl Kingery Mays has been on the job since November, but it’s not her first time in Wilmington.
In 1992, Mays visited a friend from graduate school who worked in the education department at the Cape Fear Museum. Mays knew it was a place she would like to be.
“I remembered how much I enjoyed the historic town, battleship, and beach, and I decided to apply,” she says. “The museum brought me here, and the region brought me here.”
Mays came to Wilmington from the position of director of public programs and operations for Historic Jamestowne, the first permanent English settlement in the America, founded in 1607 in Virginia. Prior to that position, she had ten years’ experience at a children’s museum.
Her undergraduate degree in anthropology with a history minor from the University of Virginia and graduate degree in education with emphasis in museum studies from the College of William and Mary, all started with an interest in archaeology.
“I had a cousin who was an archaeologist, and he invited us to work on an excavation for a weekend. I was hooked,” she says. “The idea of digging up history was so exciting.
“A museum is about educating people. For me it’s about the story. It’s really important that you see that you’re part of history. For kids, they are thinking about something fun to do but can connect it to where they live.”
At Cape Fear Museum, a maritime interactive exhibit, Make It Work, will be available through the summer, Mays says. The exhibit relates the history of the region, while demonstrating everyday simple engineering science to visitors of all ages. As part of a sixth-grade STEM curriculum, students study simple machines, such as the pulley systems set up on deck of a boat in the display.
There are more than 52,000 artifacts in the museum’s collection, Mays says. The museum’s exhibits calendar operates three years in advance, so she has input into what’s coming up and also in designing the displays that are already scheduled.
Mays also works with the curator of collections and a committee of reviewers when items are offered for donation to the museum. County commissioners give the final approval before items are taken into the collections.
A free outdoor learning environment, in a park just outside the museum building, is planned for this summer. With no gate around it, anyone can come and enjoy the plants, boating, water, and dredging exhibits.
Being close to nature feels normal to Mays, who grew up milking cows on dairy farm in southwest Virginia. Hiking and kayaking are favorites, but raising money to save the elephants is her
passion.
“In February 2014, I walked a hundred miles through the bush in Kenya, fifteen miles a day, to raise money for anti-poaching scouts for elephants,” she says.
The organization 100 Miles for Elephants organized the trek, which included a visit to an elephant orphanage.
“We raised $7,500 for the elephants,” she says.
Yasmin Tomkinson
Cape Fear Literacy Council interim executive director
Yasmin Tomkinson moved into her position as interim executive director of the Cape Fear Literacy Council (CFLC) in December, but she is a familiar face there.
She began at CFLC as a volunteer tutor in 2002, joined the staff in 2004 as volunteer coordinator, and later became director of the adult literacy program at the nonprofit, which provides free instruction to adults in the area needing help with reading, writing, language, and math skills.
Tomkinson’s initial venture into literacy tutoring proved a valuable experience.
“I started with a man who had work goals. It was one of the best things I’ve ever done,” she says.
Tomkinson studied education and American history at Vassar College, going on to earn an MBA with a concentration in nonprofit management from Boston University. She worked for education-focused nonprofits in rural Utah, Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Boston before moving to Wilmington.
“I went to grad school in Boston and was tired of being cold. I researched and visited places that were near water, were warm, and had a university,” she says. “I came here without knowing anyone, but it felt like home right away. I love this town.”
The CFLC serves about 500 adult learners each year through two programs. The adult literacy program serves native English speakers and the ESOL program serves those whose native language is not English.
“That’s the number of lives we touch. The need is much greater,” Tomkinson says.
Nationally about 20 to 25 percent of adults have trouble with reading. Not being able to read or communicate with confidence hinders them from feeling they are part of the community because information from schools, medical facilities, or other daily activities requires those skills.
With only eight paid employees, the bulk of the Literacy Council’s work is accomplished through the hands-on efforts of hundreds of volunteers, including teaching, fundraising, management, and even renovations of a second building on the group’s South 17th Street property where much needed meeting space is now available.
CFLC’s programs take a personalized approach, focusing on functional goals, and Tomkinson says they have an excellent training team. Training classes for volunteers in both programs take place every month to field their cadre of 175 instructional volunteers. In addition, there are about 200 non-instructional volunteers.
“My heart is in this place,” Tomkinson says. “One of the things about working here is that there are adults who want to improve their lives and volunteers that want to make that happen.”
The all-volunteer board of directors worked to get the buildings renovated and to maintain financial stability using grants, federal dollars, North Carolina adult education money, and fundraisers.
“Events and donations are about half of our budget, which is phenomenal,” Tomkinson says.
Off the job, Tomkinson has exchanged tennis and volleyball courts for railroad museums, parks, beaches, books, and Tyrannosaurus rex.
Tomkinson says she and her husband keep perspective by spending time with the most fun and creative person they know – their three year-old daughter.
Of CFLC, Tomkinson says, “This is our 30th year as a nonprofit. We depend on this community, and we are very much a part of it.”
To view more of photographer Mark Steelman's work, go to www.marksteelmanphoto.com/
