“It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome Kathleen to our team,” said Mary Valenti, chair of CTKD’s board of directors. “Her exceptional background in leadership, strategic planning and human resources, along with her passion for our mission, make her the ideal person to lead our organization into the future. Under Kathleen’s leadership, we expect our entire team to continue to build on our past success with an unwavering focus on serving more kids in the Denver metro area.”
Phillips first learned about CTKD when her son's school held a coat drive in 2020. Knowing the mission would resonate with her colleagues, Phillips connected her workplace with CTKD for a holiday giving campaign. Over the years, their team held several more coat, shoe and clothing drives, and even combined the drives with fitness challenges.
Phillips has also been volunteering at CTKD as a shopping assistant since December 2020 and loves all of the aspects of the role including stocking and tidying the store, making the blue bags for socks and undies and, most importantly, helping kids find clothing items they love.
Phillips follows Valerie Lunka as executive director. During her four years in that position, Lunka was instrumental in the organization’s continued growth and renewed focus on elevating the shopping experience for our families. Highlights of her time with CTKD include successfully steering the organization during the COVID-19 pandemic, establishing the curbside service program, overseeing significant upgrades to the store (many of which were donated), the addition of three staff members and significant increases in the organization’s operating budget. Lunka will remain with the organization, continuing to lead fundraising efforts and event planning as CTKD’s development director, the position she held from 2014 to 2019.
“Clothes To Kids is grateful for Val’s long tenure with the organization and her leadership as executive director, and she deserves much of the credit for the organization’s year-over-year growth in the number of kids we’ve served,” Valenti said. “We are fortunate to have Val remain with CTKD as development director, maintaining continuity in our donor relationships and community connections.”
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