Interview with Dorri McWhorter, President and CEO at YMCA of Metro Chicago

UNBOSSED

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Interview with Dorri McWhorter, President and CEO at YMCA of Metro Chicago

Brought to you by The Chicago Woman's Club

Marina

Oct 05, 2021

Wepa! I'm Marina. I am a technologist, mom, podcast host, leadership coach, cruciverbalist and aquarian. ;)

UNBOSSED is “Stories of Amazing Women in Chicago”.

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In this episode:

I interviewed Dorri McWhorter,President and CEO at YMCA of Metro Chicago. Dorri joined the YMCA in August 2021. Before serving at the Y, Dorri joined YWCA Metropolitan Chicago in March 2013 and has led the organization’s transformation to a social enterprise, including the YWCA’s expansion of digital services with the launch of YShop.org (e-commerce platform), womenshealthexchange.org (health insurance and information) and the MPWR, pronounced “empower”, mobile app (community engagement). Dorri leverages her large-scale change experience from working over 20 years in management consulting to the work that the YWCA does to create social change. Dorri lead the process for the YWCA to develop an exchange traded fund (ETF) for women’s empowerment (NYSE: WOMN) in partnership with Impact Shares, which is the first non-profit investment advisor to develop an ETF product. Dorri was included in the inaugural list of “The Blue Network”, comprised of the top 100 innovators in Chicago, by Chicago Tribune’s Blue Sky Innovation and is a 2019 Inductee in the Chicago Innovation Hall of Fame. Dorri serves on the Board of Directors for William Blair Funds and Skyway Concession Company (Chicago Skyway), and Lifeway Foods, Inc. Dorri co-chairs the Advisory Board for First Women’s Bank (in formation). McWhorter’s civic and philanthropic leadership includes the board of directors for the Chicago Center for Arts and Technology, 1871 (Technology Business Accelerator), Civic Consulting Alliance, and the Civic Federation. Dorri is also a member of the Illinois Charitable Trust Board. McWhorter received a bachelor of business administration degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a master of business administration degree from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Lake Forest College.

Key Highlights/Tools:

A Woman Accountant that is leading Human Services
Only Black Female Accounting Partner in the Metro Chicago Area Top 10 Firms
Allyship within and outside an organization
In career conversation, people do not connect the dots unless you connect them for them. Ask for what you want.
If you want to find out how to change a company, go the people that actually do the work, ask them and then tell the people that can change it your findings
A joyless life is not life
Have informational conversations about boards

Timestamp:

2:00 Introductions

3:00 Little Accountant Dorri

9:00 Early Accounting Career

12:30 Only Black Female Accounting Partner in the Metro Chicago Area Top 10 Firms

14:00 Allyship in a male dominated industry

23:00 Digging into the numbers

26:25 Accounting or Finance? What’s the difference

29:00 How do others perceive you as a professional?

32:00 From Private to Public Sector

36:30 Finding your center of joy

39:00 Joining a board

42:00 First day as a CEO

48:00 Humanitarian Services

Memorable Quotes:

You cannot separate the numbers (or budget) from the narrative (or strategy)

Useful Links and Resources:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorrimcwhorter/
https://www.ymcachicago.org/

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This week's question is: What challenges have you faced as a woman founder?

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