As she spoke about leaving the job that has inspired her and obsessed her for 25 years, Janice McKenzie-Crayton was suddenly interrupted by a crowd of co-workers, bringing an enormous floral arrangement into her office.
“Oh my gosh,” she laughed. “Now they’re bringing stuff like it’s a burial or something. Here comes the flowers.”
It's not exactly a burial, but an old era at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta is coming to an end.
McKenzie-Crayton announced Tuesday that in December she will be retiring from her role as president and CEO of the Atlanta non-profit.
In recognition of her service, McKenzie-Crayton will be honored at the 2017 Legacy Awards Gala, to be held on Sept. 9 at The St. Regis Atlanta.
Board chair David Clark expressed gratitude for her service.
"Most of all, the agency is grateful for her tireless commitment and advocacy on behalf of children facing adversity in Atlanta," he said.
A former director of development at Spelman College, McKenzie-Crayton arrived at the child advocacy organization in a time when it was losing funding. “It was a mess,” she said.
During her tenure McKenzie-Crayton spearheaded a $7.7 million fund-raising campaign that let the group buy and renovate a 25,000-square foot, facility in Midtown Atlanta. The building was named the Angela and Arthur M. Blank Mentoring Center in 2016.
In the last quarter-century, Big Brothers Big Sisters has matched at least 50,000 under-privileged children with young adults who offer a listening ear, ready guidance and friendship.
Those mentors don't just take their "littles" to ball games and help with homework, but follow a program McKenzie-Crayton established geared to achieving success in high school."We are graduating 97 percent of our students on time," said the retiring CEO.
“While I’m retiring from Big Brothers Big Sisters, I’m really sure that I am not retiring from the work that gives me such pleasure and such passion. And that is having an impact on this community, and connecting people who want to do good, and addressing the needs of some of our most vulnerable citizens,” she said.
McKenzie-Crayton’s last day will be Dec. 31. Beginning Sept. 2 she will serve as an advisor, as the agency seeks her replacement.
“It is more than time for someone else,” she said. “I told the staff and the board that the next person will be far better than I am.”
A three-time breast cancer survivor, McKenzie-Crayton, 62, is well aware that no one is guaranteed the future. “If I’m going to do something for the next 10 years that is not Big Brothers Big Sisters — that has perhaps a larger platform — then I better get busy about it,” she said.
She is a member of the board of the Susan G. Komen foundation, and said that fighting breast cancer, and assuring equal access to health care for all women, may become a bigger part of her life.
“There is such a big gap in the survivor rate among minority women and Latinas,” she said. “It’s pretty stark.”
An only child born to a career-military father and a schoolteacher mother, McKenzie-Crayton has been a formidable personality since she was small. “Encountering me, what I am, you’ve got to be ready for it,” she said with a laugh.
Janice McKenzie earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Howard University, where she met and married her college sweetheart, Pernell Crayton.
The two celebrated their 40th anniversary last week. They have two children, Janell McKenzie-Crayton and Carrie Rose Crayton.
Of the search for her replacement, she said “I will do all I can to make sure there is an easy seamless transition.”
She is not, however, going to be training her successor. “How I view that,” she said, “is that anybody that comes in this role, to run this agency, they don’t need to be trained.”
