JANINE WOODS, outside the main YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh building, Downtown. (Photo by J.L. Martello)
by Christian Morrow, Courier Staff Writer
When YWCA Greater Pittsburgh’s new CEO Janine Woods started in July, she said she had the goal of shaking 100 hands in 100 days.
Well, she’s shaken 120 hands in 60 days, and she’s not stopping there.
“I came here for the opportunity to be able to make a difference in the lives of women, and women of color, to be able to address racial and gender equity needs in this market,” Woods told the New Pittsburgh Courier in an exclusive interview, Sept. 16. “Gender pay issues, Black women suffering from a socio-economic point of view at a greater rate than White women…I’m working on the planning of those initiatives, as many as seven to 10 new initiatives, based on board approval of course, and making sure it’s aligned with the strategic plan.”
She comes by her advocacy, naturally. Her father, the first Black engineer hired by Boeing, was a civil rights leader in Kansas. He led by example.
“He hired a lot of the Tuskegee Airmen when they got out of the war, and he brought the Urban League to Kansas,” she said. “There were six kids and we were all involved in the movement very early.”
She was also involved in Kansas politics very early, working on Bob Dole’s senate campaign when she was 12, and later on Dan Glickman’s congressional campaign. She went on to intern in both of their offices in Washington, D.C. before realizing it wasn’t for her. She worked for Ford’s Parts and Service division in Texas—she’d learned how to change brakes when she was 11—was in the pharmaceutical industry, and then with Kodak in Rochester, N.Y., where things took another turn.
“Kodak was a great company; they had a program that rotated me through various divisions; the last one was corporate giving, working with 501c3s in Atlanta,” she said. “I went back and said that’s what I want to do for Kodak. They said they needed me in Rochester, so I quit—a good job, in my 20s and went to Atlanta with no job. I started working with nonprofits from the ground up and learned everything—writing grants, creating boards, developing strategic plans. I learned from mentors who’d done it for 40 years.”
While there, she also worked for LaFace Records.
“Yeah, Babyface, L.A. Reid, Goodie Mob—we had Usher when he was 14,” she said. “And of course, we had Toni Braxton. She was nice.”
With such a varied career in the political, nonprofit and corporate worlds, how does that play with her new position in Pittsburgh?
“I think it is an asset because this is not easy work,” she said. “This is challenging work, 24-hour-a-day work. This is not a 9-to-5 job. This is a calling, and this is mission-driven work so, in that sense, I’m a missionary.”
Woods said she is working on a legislative agenda to show lawmakers what is at the top of the Y’s list in terms of advocacy and issues. She said while other nonprofits may be addressing some of those issues, and may end up partnering with the Y, that will not always be the case.
“The Y is a leader. This is a leading organization, so we need to lead,” she said. “No one, in my opinion, can do it better than the women of the YWCA because we have 150 years in this market. So I think there are those who can do it as well as us, but no one who can do it better. We have to be brave enough to lead—and I’m brave enough to lead. I have no fear of leadership and of trying innovative things. I have no fear of addressing challenging issues, and no fear of stepping out front and saying I’ll do it first—because it has to be done.”
She said the Y works with “not the prettiest people in our society”—the downtrodden, mentally ill, homeless, women who work the street.
“We have to help them, too. They have needs. They suffer from domestic violence, STDs, high unemployment, stress,” she said. “So are there initiatives to address those needs? Do we see them? I see them. I want them to know I see them, I hear them.”
Woods said she’ll be making her presentation to the board on her initiatives in a few weeks.
“I’m excited about these initiatives—I hope the board is,” she said. “They’re bold. People will be like, ‘Whoa.’ But what would Jesus do? He would want us to help. If the board approves it, we’re going to rock and roll with a very bold strategy—controversial, I’m sure. Might make some folks feel some kind of way. But they didn’t bring me here to sit down and be quiet and be shy. They brought me here to make a difference and to speak up and that is what I’m going to do. That’s what I’ve always done.”
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