Welcome Jim Wambach, Executive Director!
By Chelsea Boniak | July 9, 2017
Children Rising is delighted to announce the selection of James Wambach as our new Executive Director. He is married to Sophia and together, they have 4 children and 5 grandchildren. Jim is passionate about serving youth in the East Bay community in the hopes of dramatically and positively affecting the trajectory of their lives.
Six years ago, Jim left his highly successful career in technology expressly to dedicate his energy to serving vulnerable individuals within our community. He founded and managed Sesen Elder Care and helped initially develop Foster City Village, a nonprofit that supports seniors with resources and volunteers. He later served as its President of Board of Directors and acting Executive Director. Under Jim’s leadership, Foster City Village experienced significant growth.
Family photo from Jim and Sophia’s recent wedding
In his former life as a technology executive, Jim distinguished himself in a variety of roles such as CEO, COO, and VP of Sales. He has led teams of over 100 people. Some of his many strengths include strategic management, coaching and mentoring, team building, and financial management.
Jim will be stepping into the shoes of Randy Roth, who founded Children Rising 16 years ago as an outreach to Oakland’s vulnerable kids and under-resourced schools. Under Randy’s clear vision and exemplary leadership, Children Rising grew from serving one school to serving over 30 schools, impacting the lives of 2,500 students thanks to our highly-capable staff and hundreds of dedicated volunteers. Over the years, Children Rising has expanded our initial program Succeeding by Reading and added three more to serve Oakland youth: Health4Kids, Science Horizons and CareerBridge.
When Randy announced his plans to retire, our board formed a search team to select the next Executive Director. They made sure to keep one of our founding principles in mind:
“Children Rising is committed to continuity and therefore strives to sustain what we start, to count the cost and to build a mission that will outlast its founders.”
Children Rising is grateful for Jim’s leadership as we begin this new chapter. We look forward to you getting to know him, and thank you for your continued support. We also wish once again to acknowledge and thank our founder and leader Randy Roth for these past 16 years. We wish him and his wife Diane the very best of health, joy, and peace as they begin their own new chapter in life.