YWCA R.I. CEO and President Perry to step down in late July

Updated at 5:14 p.m.

WOONSOCKET – One of the oldest and largest women’s organizations in Rhode Island will have a new leader by the middle of next summer.

YWCA Rhode Island announced Tuesday that Deborah L. Perry, who has been with the organization since 1997 and has served as its CEO and president the last 24 years, will step away from the nonprofit on July 31, 2023. When she was promoted as the YWCA’s top executive in 1999, Perry, at age 36 at the time, was the youngest CEO and president in the nonprofit’s history.

Perry, who first joined the YWCA as its development director after an early career in community and regional planning, told Providence Business News Tuesday that she accomplished a myriad of initiatives at the YWCA and she is at that point in her career where she wants to “try something new.” While Perry is looking forward to helping the community in a different capacity, she admits the decision to leave the YWCA is bittersweet.

“I am impressed by the work of our dedicated team and I am inspired by the people we serve. I am fortunate to stand on the shoulders of giants,” Perry said. “I feel fortunate that I’ve been able to work with my colleagues every day and to serve the community that I’m able to serve.”

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Among Perry’s accomplishments at the YWCA, according to the organization, include merging the YWCA’s Northern Rhode Island location in the city into Central Falls-based YWCA Greater Rhode Island, which formed a single statewide organization in 2011. The nonprofit, under Perry’s leadership, also in 2015 acquired and revitalized the YWCA/Nickerson Community Center in Providence, which became a resource for more than 100 families within the city’s Olneyville section on a daily basis. Perry helped the YWCA manage the Gateway to Independence program, which serves more than 100 veterans annually, and secured $2.7 million in funds to renovate the organization’s housing facilities.

“Deborah’s leadership, vision, determination, as well as her unassuming ‘can do’ approach, have all served to increase the influence and impact of the YWCA,” said Marissa Ruff, YWCA Rhode Island board chairman, in a statement. “Deborah’s legacy includes growing YWCA assets, adding innovative programming in response to community identified needs and challenges, widening our physical footprint, and positioning the YWCA for long term financial stability and success.”

But Perry said her greatest accomplishment was creating in 2012 the vision and serving as inaugural chair of the Sheila Skip Nowell Leadership Academy. At the time, it was the state’s first charter school to use a blended online curriculum, the YWCA said, and focused on serving youth who are pregnant, parenting or under resourced.

“That actually evolved from a program which was in existence at the YWCA that was serving young women who had dropped out of high school and came to the YWCA to get at GED,” Perry said.

Perry said she plans to take some time away after departing the YWCA in late July to do some hiking and kayaking. The YWCA said Perry will remain leading the organization while its board of directors extensively searches for its new leader.

(CORRECTION: Deborah L. Perry is stepping away, not retiring, from YWCA Rhode Island.)

James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.