Thursday, December 27, 2012
Person of the year
As a leader and advocate, Wood was an obvious choice jon leu
jleu@nonpareilonline.com
The Daily Nonpareil’s choice for this year’s “Person of the Year” could have been selected to receive the honor numerous times in the past, but, according to Tom Schmitt, The Nonpareil’s publisher, the addition of a key community initiative to her long list of responsibilities and accomplishments in 2012 made it obvious that this was her year. “In addition to running one of the community’s most prestigious organizations, in 2012 our honoree accepted the challenge of reaching out to even more people via the creation of the Kanesville-Tinley Neighborhood initiative, a project that confirms there is no end to Carol Wood’s love for our city or her desire to help others,” Schmitt said on Wednesday, when making the official announcement. “Carol just keeps giving more and more to our community and to people in need.” At 61 and after 40 years working at a growing and increasingly important Children’s Square U.S.A., the last 20 as the organization’s president and CEO, Wood, at an age when many are thinking about – or at least beginning to think about – winding down their careers remains a tireless advocate for children and their families and a community leader. A native of Council Bluffs, she enrolled at Dana College in Blair, Neb., where she earned a bachelor’s degree in social work and psychology following her graduation from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1969. Wood began working at Children’s Square in 1972, interning as a childcare worker. “I was a student at Dana College,” she said. “We had the month of January to do something.” Wood worked part-time in the childcare center, then part-time in a dormitory during the summer. “That was when we were still legal guardians of children – about the end of the orphanage era,” she recalled. Wood started working at Children’s Square full time in May 1973. She helped oversee a group home in Clarinda, and then moved into a
Staff photo/Jon Leu
Carol Wood, president and CEO of Children’s Square U.S.A., is The Daily Nonpareil’s Person of the Year. group home on the Council Bluffs campus when it opened. A year later, she was transferred to foster care and adoption. In 1978, she was one of several Children’s Square employees sent to the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kan., on a grant to study family therapy. She made the trip to Topeka twice a month for two years then monthly for a third year. “That’s really when I made my huge leap in terms of training and my credentials to work with families,” she said. “The Menninger Clinic was one of the major training centers in the United States. “The goal was to prevent out-ofhome placements of children and to get them back home as soon as possible.” It was during that same period
that Wood enrolled as a student at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where she earned a master’s degree in social work in 1980. Those early years of her decades at Children’s Square saw her gain experience in children’s programs, the girls detention unit, group care, the foster parent adoption program, the boys program and group home in Clarinda, the boys treatment program, the family therapy project, the campus-based school program and with runaway homeless youth. “I worked every program – from the ground up,” she said. It was experience, a thorough grounding, that would serve her and the institution well in the years to come. By 1987, Wood had become a supervisor of therapists, training staff on children and family therapy. Four
years later, in 1991, she was promoted to vice president. Wood was named interim president in 1992 as a nationwide search was being conducted for a new permanent leader. “I had no intention of becoming president, and I didn’t apply for the position,” she said. “I didn’t think I had enough leadership skills.” When the nationwide search left the board without a candidate all could agree on, Wood agreed to be considered as a candidate. In 1993, she was named to head the organization. A year and a half ago, Wood was named Iowa Social Worker of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers. At the time, El Seibert, a local social worker and past recipient of the award who nominated Wood, said, “Her dedication and commitment to improving the lives of others has been instrumental in Children’s Square U.S.A. becoming the premier community organization it is today. Carol is well known for her leadership skills. She is a tireless advocate for children and their families and works to educate legislators and the community about their needs. Her leadership and dedication to children and families have earned Carol deserved respect among her staff, peers and colleagues.” Wood said that when she started at Children’s Square, the organization had an annual budget of $500,000, a number that has grown to $9.5 million today. Children’s Square now boasts a staff of 200, all of them professionals. Those staff members work out of offices in Council Bluffs, Omaha and Sioux City. Children’s Square U.S.A. serves more than 2,200 children and their families annually. On a daily basis, nearly 500 children and families are enrolled in one of the organization’s many programs, including early childhood care and education programs, educational classes and counseling services, emergency services for children including a telephone help line, services for runaway and homeless youth, a grade 1-12 special education program, residential treatment for children and adolescents experienc-
ing serious emotional disorders and aftercare services for young adults who have aged out of foster care. It’s a huge task to which Wood has added a neighborhood improvement project for the area surrounding the Children’s Square campus in Council Bluffs. “This was once a very proud neighborhood, but over the years it’s been in decline,” Wood said. Through the initiative, neighbors are getting to know one another. They are cleaning up the neighborhood, and they are beginning to partner with Habitat for Humanity of Council Bluffs to make improvements. “It’s all about bringing people together,” Wood said. “Carol is an incredible leader and an even better person,” said Phil Taylor, chairman-elect of the Children’s Square Board of Directors. “Anyone who has spent any amount of time around Carol or around Children’s Square knows how each and every employee is truly dedicated to the mission of helping children and families in need. That’s due in large part to Carol’s hard work, her vision, dedication and leadership. “I cannot imagine Children’s Square without Carol Wood. She works tirelessly to make Children’s square the compassionate, competent, forward thinking organization that it is.” “Carol has done a remarkable job managing the Children’s Square organization and its affiliates in an incredibly challenging environment,” said Bob Mundt, chairman of the Christian Home Association Foundation Board of Directors. “Her dedication and passion for the welfare of our children and the world in which they live should be an inspiration to us all as we consider their impact on each of our futures. There is no better example.” “There was a time that I could not imagine not being there,” Wood said of her work at Children’s Square. “I can imagine that now. But I’m only 61, and I’ve got a capital campaign or two left in me. We’ve got boys cottages to build, we’ve got an endowment to build up …”
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