NEXT WEEK'S GREETER, STACY LITTERAL

 

I am currently the Executive Director of Kids’ Country.  I was born and raised in the San Ramon Valley and have live here most of my life.  After graduating from California High School, I attended Saint Mary’s College in Moraga and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in economics in 2003.  I began my career working in the Human Resources department of an international transportation line in San Ramon.  I met my husband Shaun while playing on the company’s softball team.  In 2005 we were married and we bought our first house in Livermore, CA.  In 2006, my son Mason Robert Litteral was born.  I was a stay at home mom for 18 months during which time I started evening classes toward my MBA.   In 2008, I joined Kids’ Country as the Human Resources Director.  Later that year I completed my MBA program as well.  In 2011, my daughter Emma Kathryn Litteral was born.  She was born very prematurely and had a respiratory disease at birth that kept her in the hospital for a period of time.  Dealing with that time was definitely my biggest challenge.  However, she recovered beautifully and came home healthy.  In 2012, I was promoted to the Associate Executive Director positon and we began the succession planning process as our Executive Director was planning to retire within the next couple of years.  In 2013, I attended Stanford’s Executive Program for Non-Profit Leaders.  It was a huge success for me and a life changing opportunity I learned so much from.  In June 2014, Chris Erbe, our Executive Director retired and the Board of Directors offered the position to me.  Besides having my children, this was definitely my greatest accomplishment.  I am very excited to be taking on the new challenge and leading such a wonderful non-profit organization that is based in my home community.

 

Kids’ Country is a 30-year old non-profit organization that was originally built by a group of parents who saw the need for on campus before and after school programs.  Over the last 30 years, Kids’ Country has grown into an organization with 13 sites across the San Ramon Valley Unified School District.  We currently employ about 170 employees and serve over 1,700 children daily and about 500 children during the summer.  This fall, all of our 13 locations will have achieved national accreditation by the Council on Accreditation, making Kids’ Country the only fully accredited child care organization in the state of California.  We are currently working on a $8 million fundraising campaign to build the Kids’ Country Center for the Arts & Sciences in the heart of Danville.  The center will allow the community to have a 250 seat performing arts center as well as specialized instructional space for S.T.E.M. (science, technology, engineering and math), visual arts, culinary arts and performing arts.

 

In my free time, I enjoy reading non-fiction books by inspirational leaders, cooking, swimming and travelling with my husband and kids.  As a family, we are Disneyland season pass holders and try to escape there at least three times a year.  I am currently a board member of the Twin Creeks PTA and a member of San Ramon Rotary.

 

In the near future, I hope to successfully continue an appropriate work life balance and be the best mom and leader I can be.  I hope to successfully raise the funds to complete the Center for the Arts & Sciences.  My professional goal is to grow and expand Kids’ Country as much as possible programmatically and be recognized nationally as a premier after school program.  Eventually, I hope to be a leadership professor in a collegiate MBA program.