The National Youth Leadership Council has hired Kelita Bak to replace its founder and retiring CEO, Jim Kielsmeier, who will remain with the St. Paul, Minn.-based nonprofit to lead one of its new ventures.
Bak, who will take over at NYLC in early January, is the national vice president of advancement for Kansas City-based Camp Fire USA. Before that, she served as director of government relations for service-learning promoter Youth Service America, and as a lobbyist for the 270,000-member American Motorcyclist Association.
NYLC said in a statement announcing Bak’s hiring that she served as a main consensus-builder for service-learning leaders on the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which drastically increased the potential for expansion of AmeriCorps.
NYLC, which Kielsmeier founded 25 years ago, provides training and service-learning curricula and hosts the annual National Service-Learning Conference.
“I am eager to work with the board, staff, funders and external stakeholders to build upon NYLC’s strong foundation and to lead this well-respected organization toward continued and expanded success,” Bak said in the statement released by NYLC.
Kielsmeier will stay with NYLC to lead Engaged Education Now, a coalition started with $250,000 from State Farm Insurance to focus on education policy and the role of service learning in the education world.
