Respected Social Change Leader to Expand Nonprofit’s Impact and Serve More Kids in Need of Essential Items
CHICAGO (June 14, 2022) – Cradles to Crayons announced today that Dawn Melchiorre will join the national nonprofit providing children from birth to age 12 living in low-income situations with the essential items they need to thrive as the executive director of their Chicago operations, effective immediately. With Melchiorre’s leadership, C2C will continue to mitigate Children’s Clothing Insecurity in Chicago where 48 percent of children live below the poverty line. C2C is the only large-scale nonprofit organization to focus on this resource gap.
Melchiorre comes to Cradles to Crayons from 360 Youth Services, serving as the interim CEO and helping restructure the organization to better achieve its mission of offering counseling, housing, and other services to local youth.
“Dawn has over 20 years of experience in building and managing teams, fundraising, strategic planning, and public policy work,” said Bernard Cherkasov, National COO at Cradles to Crayons and interim Executive Director for the Chicago office. “She spent her career serving children in crisis and uplifting families in need and has proven success in creating, building, and sustaining collaborations and partnerships at every level in service of a mission. We’re thrilled she will be joining Cradles to Crayons at such a pivotal time for the organization.”
Originally from the Chicagoland area with deep ties to the western Chicago suburbs, Melchiorre began her career at Voices for Illinois Children where she organized advocacy campaigns raising awareness for issues related to early childhood education, mental health, and nutrition. Following that role, she joined the Greater Chicago Food Depository as Senior Director of Programs where she helped build the Illinois No Kid Hungry Campaign and the Illinois Commission to End Hunger to help connect children and families with healthy food and the resources they need to thrive.
“I am humbled to be joining Cradles to Crayons as Executive Director for the Chicago market,” stated Melchiorre. “For more than 20 years, I spent my career serving organizations, programs, and policies that promote healthy childhood development. I look forward to working alongside Cradles to Crayons’ team, volunteers, partner agencies, and donors to help end Children’s Clothing Insecurity.”
Cradles to Crayons partnered with Koya Leadership Partners, the national executive search firm that specializes in leading mission-driven searches, to conduct this search. Koya had been involved with the 2016 expansion of Cradles to Crayons to Chicago, recruiting Bernard Cherkasov as the founding Executive Director in Chicago and later Shoshana Buchholz-Miller who departed in 2021. Cherkasov has since been promoted to the chief operating officer role of Cradles to Crayons nationally and served as interim Executive Director during the search.
Since its 2016 opening, C2C Chicago has distributed more than 650,000 packages to Chicagoland children and hosts various annual initiatives to advance its mission including Ready for Learning, Gear Up for Winter, Spring Greening, and Gear Up for Baby. Visit cradlestocrayons.org/chicago to learn more.
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