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When Dorri McWhorter ’09 MBA became CEO of YWCA Metropolitan Chicago in 2013, she knew she needed to nudge the city’s oldest women-focused social service organization into the 21st century. After 20 years in accounting, the Kellogg School of Management graduate and long-time YWCA board member left her position at Crowe Horwath, where she was the accounting firm’s first African American partner, to head the 140-year-old nonprofit. Drawing on lessons from her career in the private sector, the vivacious CEO developed a new business plan to allow the organization to serve more than 200,000 women, children and families each year. McWhorter oversees services that range from sexual assault support and racial justice advocacy to career and financial management. The Chicago native has also ramped up TechGYRLS, which aims to encourage girls in science, technology, engineering, arts and math, and spearheaded Developing Digital Diversity, which trains women in web and mobile app development. More broadly, McWhorter is rethinking nonprofit management, treating her colleagues as partners and encouraging corporate and government funders to become partners in social impact.
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