Today The Ticker introduces new leaders at two prominent organizations and takes a look at two other openings soon to be filled.

Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities: Elizabeth Palchak

Groundwork was founded in 1995 and focuses on a variety of initiatives intended to strengthen communities and protect the environment. After longtime Executive Director Hans Voss announced in May that he was stepping down at the end of the year, the organization hired Marshall native Elizabeth Palchak to replace him.

Palchak comes to Groundwork after time out west and east, where she picked up graduate degrees in environmental science and natural resources. She’s spent portions of her career in academia, the private sector and nonprofit organizations, most recently serving as the director of sustainability at the University of Vermont.

Palchak says she's stepping into an organization set up for continued success.

“Hans has done a lot of work in the last two or three years to prepare for his departure, and has done some very strategic hiring to make sure that Groundwork can continue the momentum that he started,” Palchak tells The Ticker.

In an age where misinformation is rampant, Palchak wants Groundwork to be a thought leader on meaningful issues.

“We really want to be a trusted source for accurate information on the issues we care about, particularly in such a dynamic and challenging time for the country at the national level,” she says.

Palchak says she also wants Groundwork to focus on solutions that resonate across the political spectrum. This will give these solutions a better chance at finding successful paths, and will also help with another of her goals: Bringing more people into the fold and connecting them with Groundwork’s mission and initiatives.

“Part of Groundwork’s reputation has been to be bipartisan in our solutions…and I think there’s a huge opportunity to focus in on ideas that have a broad reach,” she says.

20Fathoms: Craig Wesley

20Fathoms, founded in 2018, is both a coworking space and a startup incubator with a focus on tech companies.

In November, 20Fathoms announced the hiring of Craig Wesley as executive director. He replaces Eric Roberts, who led the organization since 2021.

Wesley is a Michigan native who spent more than two decades in Silicon Valley in a variety of roles, beginning with sales before moving into management.

“I was just a regular guy from the Midwest, and the place to me was just nuts. People thought so differently, and the pace was so wild, and it was really quite invigorating,” he says. “I had the opportunity to work with lots of different teams and businesses because of the density of opportunities out there – sometimes startups work, and sometimes they don’t.”

He recalls the wild times of the late 1990s dot-com boom (and eventual bust).

“We felt that this is probably what Florence was like during the Renaissance: Everything is happening right here, and we’re going to change the world, and it’s all because of what we’re doing on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “Well, we all know how that turned out.”

Wesley and his wife made a conscious decision to slow things down and spend more time with their young children. They moved to Traverse City in 2013, and Wesley took on consulting roles.

He was familiar with 20Fathoms since its inception and got excited about it being a place where he can “plug in and serve the community” in a way that’s not possible working for only one or two companies. Significant grant funding and substantially expanded staff made the opportunity extra enticing, he says.

“I thought that the organization was at a level of maturity and at a time where I could really come in and add some value,” he says.

Bay Area Transportation Authority (BATA)

Kelly Dunham, executive director at BATA since 2016, announced last month that she’d be stepping down at the end of the year to take a role with 4Front Credit Union.

The BATA board’s executive director committee met Thursday to discuss next steps, BATA spokesman Eric Lingaur tells The Ticker. The board is working with transit industry consultant TransPro to coordinate the search. 

The qualifications for the new executive director are still being finalized, Lingaur says, and the job description and posting should be completed before the holiday. Some initial qualifications include someone with small urban transit experience, financial acumen and a strong collaborative work ethic to continue to build public transit in the community.

The tentative timeline is four months to fill the position with the goal of having the new director in place by late spring/early summer.

Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation

Among other activities, GTRCF provides a variety of grants to local organizations so they can boost their positive impact on the community. Dave Mengebier has served as the foundation’s president and CEO since 2018, but recently announced he’ll be stepping down at the end of 2025.

Mengebier said in a statement that the foundation's board is "committed to a transparent and equitable process to identify the next President/CEO to support the foundation. As the board implements our succession planning policy, more details will become available as the appropriate steps unfold."

He plans to help set the table for the next person to helm the organization.

"I look forward to working with our board of directors and staff during the next 13 months remaining in my tenure to ensure a smooth leadership transition and to continue advancing the mission and vision of the organization,” he says.