FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington, D.C. (November 19, 2014) · KaBOOM! CEO and Founder Darell Hammond today announced changes in the KaBOOM! leadership team to better support the organization’s strategic extension and key priorities. KaBOOM! is the national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that all kids get the balanced and active play they need to thrive. Effective immediately, James Siegal will become President of KaBOOM!. He will join KaBOOM! Founder and CEO Darell Hammond in focusing the organization’s time on cultivating key strategic partnerships and growing KaBOOM! thought leadership in the field. Prior to KaBOOM!, James served as chief of staff for the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that supports citizen engagement to address community challenges through AmeriCorps, the Social Innovation Fund and other programs. Reporting to James are three members of the newly formed management team: Sally McConnell is now Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer with leadership responsibility for Corporate Partnerships and grassroots giving, in addition to the External Affairs team she had been managing as a vice president. Prior to KaBOOM!, Sally was the director of strategic communications at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation where she oversaw public affairs, institutional partnerships, marketing, brand management, digital engagement and product development. Kate Becker is now Chief Mission Officer & Chief Operating Officer focusing on KaBOOM! playability work, grassroots programming and talent management. Kate has deep experience in the social good sphere having served as a Peace Corps health educator in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa, and region director for AmeriCorps NCCC. Kate continues to serve as Chair of the AmeriCorps NCCC Board and authored My Dream Playground, an illustrated children’s book. Gerry Megas continues in his role as Chief Financial Officer. Gerry has served as the Chief Financial Officer of KaBOOM! for the past seven years. Previously, Gerry served as the CFO of U.S. Foodservice, a large publicly held broad line foodservice distributor. He began his career as a certified public accountant with Price Waterhouse. Bruce Bowman, who was President of KaBOOM! is now President of Play Product Initiatives, reporting directly to Darell Hammond. Additionally, Roxane Rucker and Carlyne Cardichon have been added to the leadership team. Roxane assumes Kate’s responsibilities as Vice President of Community Impact and Carlyne is now Vice President of Finance. These expanded roles will ensure a focus on driving playability—a concept introduced by KaBOOM! earlier this year—as a standard to which cities across the U.S. aspire. The organization will also continue to inspire, identify and enable the increase and advancement of replicable play behavior and playmaker action in order to drive society-level change through play solutions and make direct impact through playground builds.
KaBOOM! CEO and Founder Darell Hammond today announced changes in the KaBOOM! leadership team to better support the organization’s strategic extension and key priorities. KaBOOM! is the national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that all kids get the balanced and active play they need to thrive.
Effective immediately, James Siegal will become President of KaBOOM!. He will join KaBOOM! Founder and CEO Darell Hammond in focusing the organization’s time on cultivating key strategic partnerships and growing KaBOOM! thought leadership in the field. Prior to KaBOOM!, James served as chief of staff for the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that supports citizen engagement to address community challenges through AmeriCorps, the Social Innovation Fund and other programs. Reporting to James are three members of the newly formed management team:
Sally McConnell is now Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer with leadership responsibility for Corporate Partnerships and grassroots giving, in addition to the External Affairs team she had been managing as a vice president. Prior to KaBOOM!, Sally was the director of strategic communications at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation where she oversaw public affairs, institutional partnerships, marketing, brand management, digital engagement and product development.
Kate Becker is now Chief Mission Officer & Chief Operating Officer focusing on KaBOOM! playability work, grassroots programming and talent management. Kate has deep experience in the social good sphere having served as a Peace Corps health educator in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa, and region director for AmeriCorps NCCC. Kate continues to serve as Chair of the AmeriCorps NCCC Board and authored My Dream Playground, an illustrated children’s book.
Gerry Megas continues in his role as Chief Financial Officer. Gerry has served as the Chief Financial Officer of KaBOOM! for the past seven years. Previously, Gerry served as the CFO of U.S. Foodservice, a large publicly held broad line foodservice distributor. He began his career as a certified public accountant with Price Waterhouse.
Bruce Bowman, who was President of KaBOOM! is now President of Play Product Initiatives, reporting directly to Darell Hammond.
Additionally, Roxane Rucker and Carlyne Cardichon have been added to the leadership team. Roxane assumes Kate’s responsibilities as Vice President of Community Impact and Carlyne is now Vice President of Finance.
These expanded roles will ensure a focus on driving playability—a concept introduced by KaBOOM! earlier this year—as a standard to which cities across the U.S. aspire. The organization will also continue to inspire, identify and enable the increase and advancement of replicable play behavior and playmaker action in order to drive society-level change through play solutions and make direct impact through playground builds.
About KABOOM!KABOOM! is the national nonprofit committed to ending playspace inequity – the reality that quality places to play are not available to every child, especially in communities of color. Since 1996, KABOOM! has partnered with kids and communities to create or transform 17,000+ playspaces and ensure that nearly 12 million kids have equitable access to the crucial benefits and opportunities that playspaces offer. In 2022, KABOOM! launched the 25 in 5 Initiative to End Playspace Inequity, the $250 million plan to accelerate its mission in 25 high-priority locations over five years. Learn more at kaboom.org and join the conversation at twitter.com/kaboom, facebook.com/kaboom, instagram.com/kaboom and LinkedIn.