Naomi L. Adler, who takes over next month as president and CEO of United Way of Westchester and Putnam, had her baptism by fire at the nonprofit community agency in the hours, days and weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.
A 41-year-old attorney and former upstate prosecutor with proven skills as a fundraiser, Adler at the time had been only four months on the job as CEO of United Way of Rockland County. With the county”™s Red Cross staff dispatched to Manhattan, United Way took the lead in assisting families of World Trade Center victims and displaced downtown workers in Rockland County.
“I learned a great deal very quickly,” she said of that harrowing time and the disaster relief efforts she organized. “We were on the ground running within the day.”
On Feb. 25, Adler will bring that dynamic leadership, along with a reputation for community alliance-forging as an award-winning advocate for underserved residents, across the Hudson River to United Way headquarters in White Plains. The fourth executive to head United Way of Westchester and Putnam in its 45-year history, she succeeds Ralph Gregory.
Gregory, 68, is retiring after 26 years at the helm of the agency. The Katonah area resident said he plans to stay active as a consultant, teacher and volunteer in the Westchester community.
Regarding notable achievements during his tenure, Gregory said, “The community should be encouraged that, number one, we”™ve been able to move our organization to focus much more significantly on the major issues in the community, including affordable housing and accessible and affordable child care and health care.” The agency works with approximately 80 partners in its 15 member communities.
”˜Real change”™
Gregory has also overseen the agency”™s effort to realign its payments to human services agencies to coincide with its receivables cycle for donor pledges. “We were not as prompt as we should have been with those payments. It”™s a matter of cash flow. We were lagging behind for two or three years,” he said. The agency last July implemented a three-year transition plan to bring payments for services in line with the service period. “It”™s really working very well at the moment,” he said. “We have no reason to believe that we will not be back on course within a year.”
Following a 2004 agency survey that found the chief barrier “to people getting the help they need is they didn”™t know where to turn for help,” Gregory said, six United Way agencies ”“ in Sullivan, Westchester and Putnam, Orange, Ulster, Rockland and Dutchess counties ”“ teamed to start a 2-1-1 helpline that informs and refers callers to the nearest health and human services in the Hudson Valley region. Launched in 2005, the free, confidential and bilingual service recently received its 50,000th call, Gregory said.
The departing CEO called his successor, Adler, “a tireless crusader” for the regional helpline. “Her strength has been her unflagging commitment to helping people and her ability to rally partners around a problem in order to produce real change,” he said.
A Rochester native and former Monroe County assistant district attorney there, Adler will inherit a staff of 32 full- and part-time employees, whose experience and seniority she called “enviable.” In addition, the 2-1-1 phone line employs a paid staff of 25 in the White Plains office. The agency here has about 575 volunteers, said spokeswoman Lynn Honeysett. Its total revenues in the 2007 fiscal year that ended last June 30 were $13,383,000; the agency hopes by midyear to raise $13 million in its annual campaign.
Adler was chosen to head the agency after an extensive search that included input from leaders in the business community, health and human service agencies, government, labor and other sectors throughout the two counties. The United Way board search committee was impressed by her community activism, strategic alliances and her focus in Rockland County on extending the agency”™s reach and impact in the community.
“Naomi”™s strong track record in fundraising and relationship management are particularly important in our two counties”™ competitive environment,” said Maren Hexter, co-chairperson of the search committee. Added co-chairperson Walter Hosp, “We know that Naomi”™s leadership will further United Way”™s community impact mission and provide corporations and individuals with the confidence that their investment in United Way is met with positive change in our community.”
Key partner for business
“They should know that we have one of the strongest United Ways in the state,” Adler said of businesses considering a move to Westchester or Putnam counties. “It”™s one of the most forward-thinking United Ways out there.” That progressive quality is what attracted her to the agency across the Tappan Zee Bridge, she said.
Adler said she will first meet with the business and nonprofit communities and United Way volunteers to better understand existing collaborations “and make sure I know where they can be even more strengthened” as well as where United Way “needs to extend its reach.”
“I”™m really eager to see that our United Way organization is partnering with as many businesses as possible ”“ large, small, retail, service, you name it.”
“United Way is and should continue to be part of the economic development plan for organizations that are looking at Westchester and Putnam,” she said. “My philosophy is that United Way helps retain and assist employees with their quality of life” through services such as the 2-1-1 line.
“Businesses that are looking at Westchester and Putnam really should know about that unbelievable service that United Way brings to the community so that employees can be happy and more productive.” The 2-1-1 line is “a great tool for companies, especially ones who are trying to attract new employees,” she said.
Adler received the Forty Under Forty award given by the Rockland Business World, Rockland Economic Development Corp. and Rockland Business Association. Rockland County named her a “Hero of Humanity” for her leadership in working with underserved populations. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College and the State University at Buffalo School of Law, she received the Doris S. Hoffman Outstanding Young/New Attorney Award from the Women”™s Bar Association of New York State for her “outstanding achievements within the profession and her significant contributions to her community.”
