The Anatomy of a Great Match: Meet Alexandra Salas, Executive Director of the SECU Family House Winston-Salem

By Stephanie Flores de Valgaz

 

Experience, Empathy, and an Aha Moment

When we talk about opportunity, experience, and the right season for both an organization and a leader to come together, Alexandra Salas and SECU Family House Winston-Salem are a perfect case study.

CapDev is proud to have partnered with the SECU Family House on the Richard J. Reynolds, III & Marie M. Reynolds Campus in Winston-Salem on the executive search that led to the appointment of Alexandra Salas as its new Executive Director. Salas succeeds founding Executive Director Kathy Carr, who retired after 15+ years of outstanding leadership.

A Search Rooted in Legacy and Vision

Leadership transitions after a long-tenured and beloved founder are among the most consequential moments in an organization’s life. Early in the process, CapDev met with the search committee and board to understand not just the role, but the moment: a beloved institution with deep community trust, high demand for its services, and a board committed to protecting the mission while preparing responsibly for the future.

The clarity and insight from that visioning exercise informed everything that followed. The board wasn’t looking for a caretaker, and it wasn’t looking for someone to “move fast and grow.” It was looking for a leader who could honor legacy while strengthening the organization’s resilience. They needed a leader with the strategic discipline to build durable fundraising pipelines and healthcare partnerships, and the heart to preserve the warmth that makes families feel safe and employees valued.

The Aha Moment

Alexandra Salas is a nationally recognized nonprofit executive with more than 20 years of leadership experience. She began her career in finance before realizing she wanted to devote her skills to social good, a pivot that would define the next two decades of her work leading and scaling mission-driven organizations: setting strategy, raising diversified revenue, developing teams, and partnering with committed boards and stakeholders. That path most recently took her to the helm of Bpeace (Business Council for Peace), the international nonprofit she guided as CEO through a season of significant growth and transformation.

When the opportunity for the Executive Director role at SECU Family House arose, something clicked that went beyond a strong résumé match. This was the aha moment.

Salas understands the mission of the Family House personally. When her son was diagnosed with leukemia, she lived the daily reality that Family House guests know well, which is that of having to navigate medical complexity, exhaustion, fear, and logistics all at once.

“What drew me to SECU Family House was the way it turns a simple idea — a safe and affordable place to stay — into something profoundly stabilizing for families in crisis,” Salas says. What she finds compelling is both “the mission and the potential: to preserve that warmth and dignity while strengthening the House as a measurable partner in a changing healthcare landscape—one that helps reduce barriers, supports family presence, patient outcomes and deepens partnerships with health systems and the community.”

That passion for the mission, paired with proven executive leadership, is exactly what the board was seeking.

In the official press release, board chair Melanie Roche affirmed, “Alexandra brings a combination of proven nonprofit leadership and lived experience that is essential for leading the Family House. Her experience guiding organizations, working closely with boards, and building sustainable funding models, combined with her personal understanding of the challenges families face during medical crises, makes her exceptionally well-suited to lead the Family House into its next chapter.”

Hospitality, Backed by Evidence

For Salas, the Family House sits right at the intersection of compassion and outcomes. Of course, the vehicle is hospitality, but it’s also access to care, caregiver endurance, and the ability to keep families close during intensive treatment. And the scale of that impact is real: thousands of guests served, more than 12,000 room nights provided, and occupancy running near 86%. The Family House isn’t just a good story; it’s an essential part of the regional healthcare ecosystem.

Salas envisions a future where that warmth is paired with data, not in an impersonal way, but in a manner that conveys the truth about impact and affordability, deepens hospital partnerships, and makes clear that funding support for the House is structurally essential, not supplemental.

“Success, to me, is that SECU Family House becomes the region’s gold standard — where safe, affordable lodging, caregiver support, and hospital partnership come together so access to care is a standard, not a privilege,” she says.

Stewarding the Legacy Forward

Salas steps into a role shaped by a distinguished predecessor, Kathy Carr, newly retired Executive Director, offered a warm endorsement of the board’s appointment. “Alexandra’s experience, integrity, and personal connection to this mission make her an outstanding choice by the board,” said Carr in the press release. “I am excited to support a smooth transition and to see the Family House continue to thrive in service to guests.”

From CapDev’s perspective, this outcome illustrates what the anatomy of a great search really looks like. It is the confluence of a variety of factors: a board with vision and understanding of the sector landscape, fidelity to a process, and among a strong candidate pool, the emergence of the right leader, equipped with the skills, competencies, and commitment to steward an organization’s mission into the future. When those pieces come together, a search becomes more than a hire. It becomes an opportunity to honor legacy and enter a new era of possibility. Such has been the case with the SECU Family House Winston-Salem search. We congratulate Alexandra Salas, the board, and the entire Family House community, and we can’t wait to see what this next chapter holds.

About CapDev

CapDev partners with nonprofits across the Southeast like the SECU Family House Winston-Salem, to deliver highly qualified executive and development professionals who will not just be a good fit, but who will make a meaningful contribution to further your mission.  We take a hands-on, proactive, time-sensitive, and cost-conscious approach, leveraging our extensive network and decades of experience in philanthropy to conduct regional and national executive searches. With 40 years of service to the sector, we have deep, first-hand knowledge of the competencies needed to excel in championing and sustaining your nonprofit’s mission, and access to the professionals who provide them.

Wondering whether partnering with an executive search firm is right for you? We invite you to connect with us to learn more about our Comprehensive Executive Search, Candidate Sourcing, and related talent services. Get started HERE.