Woman Of The Year Nominee: "More Than A Notion"

When it comes to children, there's no stopping her.

by Roni Robbins

July 1, 2008

J anice McKenzie-Crayton never intended to lead Big Brothers Big Sisters of MetroAtlanta for more than five years.After that,she pledged to return to her career in higher education fundraising.

But 16 years after becoming CEO and president of one of the largest and oldest mentoring programs in the South, McKenzie-Crayton is still finding innovative ways for the nonprofit agency to set at-risk children on a path toward college and further success.

"There were signs this might really allow me to make a difference," McKenzie-Crayton says."I realized Big Brothers and Big Sisters offered me the rare opportunity to impact directly the lives of children and their families. I could ultimately ensure that more children could end up in some of the colleges and universities where I had worked."

Before Big Brothers Big Sisters, she was development vice president for Spelman College, after having served stints in fundraising at Howard and Hampton universities and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Essentially, McKenzie-Crayton took a boutique agency with a limited reach of 800 children and two sources of funding and turned it into a competitive business with diversified financial support and more than three times the number of children served.