Board & Staff

Brad Russell, CEO/Executive Director, has been the Rogue Valley Family YMCA Executive Director since July of 2006.  Brad received his Business Administration degree from the University of Maine and his Masters degree in Recreation and Nonprofit Management from Springfield College in Massachusetts.  He began his YMCA career in 1990 as a Program Specialist as the YMCA of Greater Rochester in New York.  He then took his first sabbatical to complete a 3,300 mile cross country bicycle trip from Maine to California.  Brad went on to volunteer for one year teaching conversational English at a YMCA in the country of Taiwan where he met his wife, Stella.  In 1995, Brad became the Program Director at an oceanfront resident camp, YMCA Camp Surf, in San Diego, California.  From 1999 to 2005, he was the Executive Director of the Monterey Peninsula and South County YMCAs in Monterey County, California.  Brad then took his second sabbatical to hike the entire 2,700 Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada.  Brad volunteers for the Nonprofit Association of Oregon and serves on the board of the Jacksonville Community Center.  As an avid traveler, he has visited YMCAs in over 35 countries, speaks Mandarin Chinese and a little Spanish.  In his free time, he enjoys sea kayaking recently completing the Inside Passage from Washington to Alaska 1,200 miles, and time outdoors with his wife and two rescued dogs.