Vanessa McDowell-Atlas Resignes as YWCA Madison CEO: Change Made
Seven years ago, Vanessa McDowqell-Atlas became the first African American to lead the YWCA Madison.
Part 2 of 2
by Jonathan Gramling
Vanessa McDowell-Atlas is a home-grown Madisonian. She grew up in South Madison and served as Mt. Zion Baptist Church’s administrative assistant for many years before professionally heading to UW-Madison before joining the staff of the YWCA Madison, stepping up to the position of interim CEO before taking the plunge and becoming the permanent CEO seven years ago.
Last month, McDowell-Atlas announced that she would be stepping doen as the Y’s CEO and taking a position with Black Girl Ventures, a national non-profit that supports and finances Black female entrepreneurs.
In December 2022, McDowell-Atlas left her mark on Soutj Madison whjen the Y purchased the Empowerment Center. She wasn’t done.
“I began engaging and building a relationship with Lino and Maria next door at El Pastor,” McDowell-Atlas said. “They had been tenants their entire existence. And so serving Madison for over 20 years in the small restaurant business and never owning their building, I was like, ‘Wouldn’t you like to own the building?’ They said it would be a dream, but they never had the opportunity. They were also talking about generational wealth and wanting to pass on the business to their kids. And so I said, ‘Let’s make it happen.’ It took about a year because we had to jump through some hoops and get through this whole process. But as of January 5, 2024, Lino and Maria own El Pastor and the three apartments above it. We condoed off the building so that they own their part and we own our part. We’re trying to build Black and Brown commercial ownership in South Madison. That was important to me.”
Under McDowell-Atlas’ watch, the YWeb Career Academy, which helps get women and people of color engaged in the technology sector.
“We wanted to be intentional about getting people set in careers and not just jobs,” McDowell-Atlas reflected. “We’ve had so much success with this program. And we have so many students who have testimonials of where they are now. We’re serving folks who have been homeless and working 2-3 jobs just to make it. And then taking this 15-week course and coming out of it at entry level positions making $50,000 to $60,000 per year, it is transformational for a family.”
The success of the program garnered some national attention as the National Y facilitated the program model to hit the national level.
“Last year, we actually just completed training 15 YWCAs across the country to do that program through a partnership between Google and YWCA USA,” McDowell said. “We were able to take the program we created here in Madison and launched it at 15 YWCAs.”
McDowell-Atlas is opening that this proven model will attract the attention of local tech companies.
“We would love to partner internally with Google and other folks who have a presence here, but we haven’t been able to find the contact,” she said.
McDowell-Atlas is proud of her track record at the Y in spite of the small, sometimes invisible barriers that came her way.
“Honestly, I often talk about my experience in my identity as a Black woman,” McDowell-Atlas said. “I often talk about experiencing racism, sexism and ageism on a daily basis quite frankly. That has been a challenge to navigate and having to spend so much time, especially early on, ‘proving myself,’ proving that I know what to do with a dollar, proving that I am well capable of leading this organization, things of that nature, which I think is a waste of time. It’s not like it was something that I was actively doing proving that I was supposed to be here. But it was this underlying tone that in me having to do extra reporting, do all of these other things, be looked at with scrutiny more so than my counterparts. It was exhausting. And it took away from the work that we needed to do. And there is so much work to do in this community.”
Aftert seven years of pushing forward the mission of the Y with integrity and passion, McDowell-Atlas felt it was time to step down.
“I am a woman of faith,” McDowell-Atlas said. “I try to live on purpose and believe that there are seasons for everything. I have been leading YWCA Madison in the CEO seat for seven years now. And in my faith, seven is a number of completion. And so I have been preparing for this time for a little bit. I am a leader who believes you have to know when it is your season and when it is time to move on. And so for me, I feel like my season at the Y is sunsetting and it is time for someone else to rise, take the baton and move it forward.”
On February 26, McDowell-Atlas began her work with Black Girl Ventures. It is a national organization that will allow McDowell-Atlas to use the many talents she has honed over the years and apply them to something she believes in while someone else leads the charge.
“And to know that Black Girl Ventures is about providing social and financial capital to Black and Brown women business owners, entrepreneurs, I was like, ‘Yes. We need more of that,’” McDowell-Atlas said. “And so if I could help support that vision in any way, I am excited to do so.”
McDowell-Atlas has lived in a predominantly white setting her entire life and so she and her husband will try something new when they move to North Carolina in June, due in part to the fact that she can perform her new duties remotely.
“My husband and I just came back from our honeymoon at the end of December,” McDowell-Atlas said. “We went to Jamaica. And the experience was so powerful in terms of the majority looking like us. And the love and they would always say, ‘Welcome home.’ There was this feeling of community that I feel like I miss here sometimes because we aren’t the majority and a lot of stuff that we have to deal with and fight with every day, it weighs on your mental and physical health.”
What is most important to McDowell-Atlas is staying true to one’s self no matter what is going on around you.
“I think the biggest thing is to be true to yourself,” McDowell-Atlas said. “There are a lot of politics in Madison that if you are not careful, you can get caught up in and lose sight of the work. I would encourage the next CEO to stay true to themselves, stay true to the mission, stay true to the work and the people whom we serve and they will be fine. You have to know your lane. Run your race. Stay in your lane and it will prove to have fruit if you are doing it for the right reasons.”
And it is the right reasons that have led Vanessa McDowell-Atlas to shine as the first Black CEO in the YMCA Madison’s history.