Heather Kiley Named Executive Director
The Board of Directors has announced veteran camp executive and Carroll County resident Heather Kiley as the next Executive Director of Carroll County YMCA (CCYMCA) | Camp Huckins, effective March 23rd. She will succeed Jody Hutchinson Skelton, who will be retiring later this year after an unprecedented 51 summers at Camp.
Heather will provide executive leadership for Camp Huckins and CCYMCA’s programming for family and youth in Carroll County. She will ensure continued financial and operational strength and cultural vibrancy, enabling Camp Huckins, in particular, to innovate and expand its work to develop girls and young women as leaders. Heather will leverage our talented year-round and seasonal staff and strategic partnerships to advance our mission, honor our values and traditions, and build for the future.
Heather Kiley
Heather Kiley brings over 25 years’ experience in residential camping and youth development, including serving as the Director of American Youth Foundation Merrowvista, a co-ed camp for children in 3rd-12th grade in Tuftonboro, New Hampshire for 9 years. She is currently the Managing Director at City Year New Hampshire, where she oversees program impact and partnerships with school leadership and local stakeholders.
Heather has served on key industry boards, including the New Hampshire Camp Directors Association, serving as president from 2017-19; the American Camp Association (ACA) New England; and the national ACA, serving as an accreditation lead visitor for twenty years. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Missouri and master’s in education from Antioch University New England. Heather and her family live in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.
Search Process
In September 2019, the Board of Directors launched a national search for a strategic, mission-driven leader to serve as its next Executive Director, following Jody’s announcement that she will retire in 2020.
The Board tapped Huckins alumna and longtime volunteer Kristen Parthe Brown, a talent acquisition executive at technology company Kronos, to chair its Search Committee. The Committee was comprised of alumnae and former staff Colleen Monahan Arons, Sarah Bird, Anne Depew, Eleni Eliades, and Emily Parker. With operational support from the Conley Search Group, the Committee ran a rigorous and inclusive process with extensive community input, including issuing a survey that generated over 620 responses offering insight on the most important skills and traits of our next leader.
The Committee developed a candidate profile and sought out strategic, empathetic, business-minded, and development-focused leaders committed to furthering our mission and organizational excellence. They looked for individuals with the ability and desire to deepen and develop meaningful relationships with the Board, the Carroll County community, parents, alumni, and other constituencies.
Leadership History
In 1928, Otis B. Read served as the first camp director of Camp Huckins, and over the years, a number of exceptional individuals and couples have held this position. Leaders from the last six decades include:
- 1953-1956 Lew and Lyn Primmer
- 1957-1961: Ruth and Latimer Hannum
- 1962: Gerald and Bettye Lane
- 1963: Donald “Duke” and Mary Ann Hermance
- 1964-1989: Zaven and Audrey Vorperian
- 1989-2003: Judy Snell
- 2004 – Present: Jody Hutchinson Skelton
Learn more about CCYMCA’s current leadership, staff and board of directors.
About CCYMCA | Camp Huckins
CCYMCA’s flagship program is Camp Huckins, a nationally recognized girls’ residential camp located on 200 wooded acres on Broad Bay of Ossipee Lake in Freedom, New Hampshire. Founded in 1928, Huckins hosts approximately 1,400 girls, ages 8-16, and 130 domestic and international staff during four two-week camping sessions in the summer. Huckins has a long track record of developing girls and young women in intentional ways and sees its mission as increasingly important in today’s world.
Huckins hosts other programming during the spring and fall, including two family camps, school and community group programming, and camping weekends such as mother/child weekends, and women’s wellness weekend.
Throughout the year, CCYMCA offers programming in the local community, working with schools and local nonprofit organizations to deliver programing in support of YMCA’s core mission of promoting wellness.
