Meet Tonia Wellons, appointed CEO of a regional nonprofit the day after stay-at-home orders were put in place

Tonia Wellons was named permanent CEO of the Greater Washington Community Foundation on April 2

You were announced as CEO the day after D.C.’s initial stay-at-home order took effect. Have you even seen your office yet? Fortunately, I had been serving as the Community Foundation’s interim president and CEO since October 2019 and am very familiar with the office, staff, our donors and community. But it was certainly a bizarre and surreal situation to be announced as our permanent CEO while our office and community are under stay-at-home orders. I have not seen my office since we moved to 100% telework on March 13. In that same week, we canceled our annual fundraising gala — losing more than $100,000 in unrecoverable costs — closed our offices and launched an emergency response fund to help community members impacted by Covid-19. It is strange that my colleagues have been working so hard to support and strengthen our community without seeing each other or our donors for more than two months.

Click here to read the full Q & A.

Source: Washington Business Journal