We’re excited to announce that Robin Gabbard joins us today, June 3, 2024 as the new President of our organization!
Robin is from Gays Creek, a beautiful Perry County, Kentucky community in the heart of our service area and will continue to live there with her family. No stranger to our work, Robin has been Board Chair of the Mountain Association since 2019 and has spent her entire career serving this region. She joins us after five years as Chief Operating Officer for LKLP Community Action, an agency of more than 300 employees that serves Leslie, Knott, Letcher, and Perry counties. With more than 30 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, Robin was also previously the Associate Executive Director of the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky and the Director of Teach for America Appalachia.
“We know Robin will lead the Mountain Association with authenticity and innovation, two characteristics essential to the right leader for an organization that has adapted and evolved to best serve its communities for almost 50 years. Robin embodies everything we and the staff were looking for in the next President,” said Hasan Davis, Mountain Association’s Board Chair.
The Mountain Association invests in people and places to advance a just transition to a new economy for Eastern Kentucky, and serves the region from its offices in Hazard, Prestonsburg and Berea. The organization’s work includes small business lending and technical assistance, support for clean energy projects, research, communications and advocacy for policy and narrative change, and collaborations with partners on a variety of community economic development projects.
“I am thrilled to step into the presidency of Mountain Association. This position for me is about listening, learning, and lifting. Not only do we serve a region full of incredible community and business leaders, but Mountain Association is staffed with remarkable and thoughtful professionals who have shaped the organization into what it is today: a regional nonprofit with a national reputation for the good work it does,” Robin described.
The Mountain Association also supports two affiliate organizations, Kentucky Natural Lands Trust and Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, and several fiscal sponsorships, all together totaling more than 50 employees.
Outgoing president Peter Hille will remain on staff as CEO through April 2025 to ensure a seamless transition prior to his retirement.
Peter has served as President since 2015 and, like Robin, was also previously on the organization’s board prior to joining the staff. During his tenure, Peter has grown the Mountain Association’s work to include new lending products, expanded clean energy programming, and more equitable ways to support small businesses and nonprofits.
“It has been an honor to have guided this organization in various capacities for more than two decades. I’m delighted to be passing the torch to Robin and I have full confidence that Mountain Association’s work will grow in new and exciting ways with her leadership,” Peter shared.
Welcome Robin!
