Big Sister Executive Director Jerry Martinson Announces Retirement

BOSTON – Jeraldine “Jerry” Martinson, executive director of the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston since 1989, and a volunteer Big Sister in the program since 1969, has announced that she will retire from the organization in June 2006.

Martinson, who has been a vocal advocate for the effectiveness of girls-only mentoring programs, said she has decided to step down, in part, because she wanted to spend more time with her family, including her daughter in New Mexico, who recently gave birth to twin girls.

“Big Sister is in an ideal place for me to move on,” Martinson said. “We are about to complete a highly-ambitious strategic plan, and about to embark on an equally ambitious plan in 2006. We have a strong management team, board and staff. Given our strength, there is no better time for someone else to take the agency even further on our path to success.”

The Big Sister Association of Greater Boston was founded in 1951 with the mission of putting a caring, adult female mentor in the life of a girl. The Big Sister Association of Greater Boston remains one of the largest Big Brothers Big Sisters in the country, although one of only two exclusively serving girls.

It is Martinson’s, and Big Sister’s, belief that girls thrive in programs which pay explicit attention to their gender, as well as their race, culture and other aspects of their lives such as socioeconomic class, sexual orientation, peer pressure and relationships with their parents and peers. The approach of providing gender-specific mentoring programs to Boston’s girls will continue after Martinson’s retirement as the Board of Directors will continue to uphold the agency’s mission.

“Although today there are more options for women and girls than there were at the time of our founding, growing-up female has not gotten any easier,” Martinson said. “The same expansion of life options for girls has made the choices they face even more critical. Big Sister has made mentoring girls our unique area of expertise. We focus on what girls need, and what women volunteers need, to be part of a successful, caring relationship. It has been an honor and a privilege to be a part of that important work for the past 35 years.”

Under Martinson’s leadership, the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston has doubled in size in the past ten years alone. The agency’s revenue has increased proportionately and now totals $2.4 million. In 2005, the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston will serve more than 2,500 girls through its community-based, school-based and group mentoring programs.

“Jerry’s dedication to Big Sister and gender-specific mentoring is remarkable,” said Dolores Mitchell, board president of the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston. “Through her leadership, Jerry has touched countless lives and certainly affected the Greater Boston community as a whole, and for the better. We are more than thankful for her years of service.”

Mitchell will lead an Executive Search Committee of the board, which is now evaluating executive search firms to assist in finding a new executive director.

Martinson became president of the board in 1972 and was named co-director of the agency in 1984, a position she shared for five years until she assumed the role of executive director.

In the past year of her service, Martinson was celebrated by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and its Pinnacle Award for Nonprofit Management and also received the “Lewis Changing People’s Lives Award” from the Grand Circle Foundation.

About Big Sister Association of Greater Boston
Since 1951, the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston has been helping girls achieve their full potential through mentoring programs specifically designed to address girls’ distinct interests and needs. The agency serves girls ages 7 to 15 in Boston and 69 other towns in its service area. In 2004, Big Sister served an unprecedented 2,264 girls through its community-based, school-based and group mentoring programs. For further information, please visit www.bigsister.org.