The president of the United Way of Wyandotte County will be retiring on June 30, according to an announcement by the organization today.
Wendell Maddox, president and CEO of United Way of Wyandotte County announced he plans to retire on June 30, 2017. Maddox has been with United Way of Wyandotte County for 17 years, 12 years as president.
“Wendell Maddox has been a forward thinking, trustworthy, and motivating leader of the United Way of Wyandotte County for many years. He is deserving of this retirement and will be missed in this role,” said Terry Robinson, former United Way of Wyandotte County board chairman.
United Way of Wyandotte County is one of nearly 1,300 community-based United Way associations in 30 countries and territories. The organization is governed by an independent board of 36 local community leaders and volunteers. United Way of Wyandotte County’s mission is to increase the community’s understanding of human needs and to mobilize resources to meet those needs. Money raised through the annual United Way campaign stays in Wyandotte County to support programs operated by nonprofit social service agencies based in the community.
Maddox has been instrumental in fulfilling United Way’s mission in Wyandotte County, a spokesman said. Maddox, born and raised in Wyandotte County, began working for the United Way of Wyandotte County as the director of agency relations in January 2000.
Eighteen months later he became vice president, under the leadership of Terry Woodbury, who was president and CEO from 1999 to March 2004. In March 2004, Maddox became the organization’s first African American president and CEO. In the years following, Maddox worked to further define and extend the effect United Way has in Wyandotte County.
“Terry [Woodbury] and I shared a vision of implementing an incremental process to move community funding to specific programs rather than entire agencies,” Maddox said. “We wanted our donors’ investments to have more of a direct impact on individuals and families.”
In response to that vision, in 2001 United Way of Wyandotte County implemented a new allocations process that funded specific community programs rather than entire nonprofit agencies. In 2013 Maddox lead the first communitywide effort to define the needs in Wyandotte County through the United Way’s community impact plan.
Community leaders, nonprofit partners, and United Way board members collaborated with United Way staff to establish outcomes and indicators for three primary issue areas which now define the direction of United Way of Wyandotte County’s funding decisions. These three areas include: meeting basic needs, nurturing children and families, and promoting health and quality of life.
Maddox also played a key role in the startup of the YouthBuild KCK program in 2000 and the “All Accounted For” project in 2006. YouthBuild helps young men and women who are unemployed and who did not complete high school obtain a GED and become prepared to enter the workforce. The “All Accounted For” project is an after-school initiative to ensure that all school aged children have the opportunity to participate in wholesome after-school activities.
Throughout the years, Maddox‘s leadership has continually been recognized by his significant involvement with many different community boards and committees.
In the spring of 2009 Maddox was elected to the Kansas City Kansas Community College Board of Trustees and served as board chairman from 2014 to 2017. He also has served on the boards or committees of the following organizations: Mental Health Association of the Heartland, School Linked Services, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, KCK Unified Government Human Relations Commission, Kansas City, Kansas Chamber of Commerce, Wyandotte County Community Health Council, Workforce Investment Board, Kansas Health Foundation Fellow, Healthy Communities Wyandotte, the YMCA Pioneering Healthier Communities, Kansas City, Kan., Public Library Foundation, and Sen. Jerry Moran’s Military Academy Selection Committee.
Maddox’s awards include the Boy Scouts of America Silver Beaver, Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools District 500 Reason to Believe, National Afterschool Alliance National Breakfast of Champions Award, Missouri Legislative Black Caucus-Achievement Award for Passage of Missouri’s Animal Care Facilities Act, and Sumner Class of 1965 Community Service Award.
“It has been an amazing journey for me and the organization over the past seventeen years,” Maddox said. “I cannot be happier nor prouder having had the opportunity to work in the community where I grew up.”
The United Way currently is accepting resumes for the president and CEO position.