"Service is What Drives" Jamee Rodgers, New CEO of the Community Foundation of the Rappahannock Region
Taking the baton from Teri McNally and looking to keep running without breaking stride.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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After 23 years, the Community Foundation of the Rappahannock Region has a new chief executive officer—but Jamee Rodgers doesn’t see himself as filling the shoes of his predecessor, Teri McNally.
“She wears heels and I wear loafers,” Rodgers joked. Rather, he sees himself as building on McNally’s “impactful legacy.”
In McNally’s two decades of leadership, the Community Foundation of the Rappahannock Region grew from an organization with less than $1 million in assets to one with more than $60 million, fueled by 220 donor funds that give away $3.5 million each year to local nonprofits and scholarships.
“Teri gave her all, and now she’s passed the baton to me and I want to take it and keep running,” Rodgers said. “I’d love to see us at least double in size and really keep honing in on the needs of the community.”
Rodgers and his wife—a former professional ballerina who now teaches dance in a Richmond-area school division—moved to the Fredericksburg area at the beginning of August for Rodgers’ new job.
The son of a retired Naval officer father and an educator mother, Rodgers grew up in Dallas, Texas in a family dedicated to public service—and he couldn’t see making a career out of anything else. Prior to taking the job with the Community Foundation, he led the Kansas City, Missouri-based Urban Neighborhood Initiative, which works to develop quality mixed-income housing and connect families with resources and support.
Before that, he was teacher. He taught kindergarten in a very low-income school division and then taught high school science in an expensive private school.
Those experiences allowed Rodgers to see “how access to capital changes things and how it is not distributed equally” and fueled his passion for ensuring that organizations working for the greater good have access to the resources they need.
That’s what attracted him to the position with the Community Foundation.
“I am very particular about where I serve,” Rodgers said. “I wanted a more hands-on approach to determining where the dolars go and making sure they’re getting to the ground where they’re needed.”
That work will involve staying attuned to what the community’s needs truly are right now, not what they’ve historically been, he said.
“We need to stay relevant to today’s needs, so that we’re not forcing our brand of help on people,” Rodgers said.
In a press release about Rodgers’s hiring, McNally expressed her confidence in his ability to “build for the next generation too—because that’s what we do.”
As an organization that pulls resources from the community to serve the community, part of the Community Foundation’s work is to help connect local philanthropists with organizations that support their goals, both while they are alive and in perpetuity.
Kimberly Young, Board Chair, said in the press release that Rodgers understands this part of the job as well.
“[He] understands that the foundation is about supporting our community while simultaneously helping donors express their legacy through giving,” Young said. “Jamee’s work will amplify the Foundation’s ability to connect generosity with community needs. We are thrilled to welcome him and confident his leadership will build on our already great organization to inspire even greater impact.”
Rodgers and his wife have settled in the town of Bowling Green in Caroline County for its location equidistant to both their jobs. They’ve been enjoying walking to the farmer’s market, talking to neighbors, and getting recommendations for places to eat around the Fredericksburg area—which Rodgers said is always one of the first questions he asks.
“My wife and I are here to immerse ourselves,” he said. “We’re excited to be here and to serve, becuase service is what we do and what drives our way of life.”
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