Jeanette Hauck, the CEO of YWCA Spokane, is retiring after a 14-year career with the nonprofit. Her last day with the organization is Dec. 19.

Hauck began her career at YWCA Spokane in 2011, first as director of finance, before being named chief financial officer. In 2020, she was named interim CEO, and later was confirmed as permanent CEO.

Hauck will be succeeded by Janine Wynne, who joins YWCA Spokane from the U.S. Department of State, where she served as deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.

The Journal sat down with Hauck to discuss why she chose to work in the nonprofit sector, her proudest moments as CEO, and some of the work that YWCA does in the Spokane community.

Why did you pursue a career in the nonprofit sector?

When I lived in San Antonio, I was the chief financial officer for the Cancer Therapy & Research Center. It was a nonprofit research center that was also tied to the University of Texas San Antonio Health Science Center.

I had the opportunity to work with pharmaceutical companies when we were testing new cancer drugs. During that time, I also had the privilege of working with patients who needed their medical bills paid.

And for me, that was a moment where I realized, as an accountant, you don't generally make an impact. You're not a front facing, client service-type person. You're just in the background making sure that the money's there for everybody to do what they need to do. But here was an opportunity for me to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies and say, “If we're going to do this type of trial, a drug test trial, how are we going to make sure that the patients who are participating in that get all of their medical costs paid for?”

It was really important to me to be able to negotiate those contracts so that all of the medical costs — the labs, the extra imaging — was paid for by the pharmaceutical companies.

The cancer center at that time was working in what they call phase-one and phase-two drug trials, and those are only available to individuals who are really at the end of their treatment. A lot of these individuals know that they will probably die of their cancer, and there was just that moment where it was like, I can make an impact on this individual's life by being part of this process.

And that's when I realized I wanted to work in nonprofit work.

It's important to make an impact. It's important to me to be part of something that makes an impact in my community.

What are some of your proudest moments since taking over as CEO?

I think our staff coming back in the office and being open and leaning into the hard of what happened after the pandemic, to be able to come in and be just really creative and collaborative about how we could serve clients. I'm really proud of how all of that came together.

We never had to close our shelter during the pandemic, and that was because our staff were creative, they worked closely with the health district, they worked closely with all of the hospitals to make sure that we had protocols in place to keep our families safe in our shelter.

I'm really proud of how we maneuvered through what was really a difficult situation.

One of the things that we did during my tenure as CEO, is we have hired a full-time racial and social justice advocate.

Before, we had interns who would do it a little bit here and there, or a part-time person, and now our person is full-time, and that's someone who's walking along side other social justice organizations in our community and making sure that we're uplifting their messaging, we're participating in their activities, and we're just trying to make sure that the Spokane community has an opportunity to really understand racism and make sure that we're part of the education process.

I'm proud of the fact that we have dedicated our funding for that.

What advice do you have for Janine Wynne as she steps into the role of CEO?

This is an incredible community, and we don't do this work alone.

We have to make sure that we're listening, we're collaborating with other organizations that are working with people who are experiencing a lot of barriers in their lives, whether that's our (Early Childhood Education & Assistance Program) families, whether that's our survivors of domestic violence, being open and being a good listener when it relates to what's going on in the community is really important.

I think the other piece that has been really important is the staff of this organization come to this work for a reason.

Many of them have experienced domestic violence in their lives. Many of them have experienced racism in their lives. And they're here because of the mission. They are the content experts, and you are there just to try to make sure that the path is clear for them to do the work that they need to do.

I think Janine is so wise. She knows that when you come into an organization like this, the first thing you want to do is to be a good listener. And she absolutely is a good listener, and I didn't need to give her that advice. She already came with that professional expertise. 

Is there anything that you think more people in the Spokane community should know about the work YWCA does?

One of the things that I would love for the community to realize is that domestic violence is preventable.

I think by raising awareness about what domestic violence is, how people can recognize it, how people can respond to it, and how they can refer them to the YWCA is really important at any point in time.

I wish we had money for billboards and TV spots that would continue to educate people about the importance of healthy relationships, giving people options, and understanding that they don't have to stay in a really toxic abusive relationship. And abuse isn't always violence. Sometimes it's emotional, sometimes it's financial, so it's complex.