Armed with Harvard MBA and haunted by memories of her uncle,
she’s transforming care of the homeless
The nights when “Good Times” and “The Six Million Dollar Man” aired were special for Symeria Hudson when she was growing up in Huntsville, Alabama.
She and her siblings would gather around the TV in their pajamas to watch their favorite shows, but best of all, Uncle Billy would call and talk about his latest adventures in California and all the exciting people he was meeting.
One night when she was about 12, however, she found her mother, Dorothy Ann Bland, crying. She asked why, and her mother told her that a few days before she had learned that Uncle Billy was actually homeless, living on the streets of Pasadena.
Hudson didn’t know what the term homeless meant. She told her mother Uncle Billy had a home with them in Alabama, and even though family members would later take him in from time to time, the streets always called, and he was gone again.
Uncle Billy, who was born in 1949 and suffered from mental illness, “never could get the help he needed,” said his niece, who since January 2019 has served as chief executive officer of the Chapman Partnership, which offers comprehensive services for MiamiDade’s homeless population at its Overtown and Homestead campuses.
The Partnership was founded in 1992 when the late Alvah Chapman, chairman and CEO of Knight Ridder — then the parent company of the Miami Herald — challenged the corporate community to tackle Miami’s homelessness problem in a holistic way. The Partnership opened its downtown Homeless Assistance Center in
1995.
Beyond the 800 beds and meals it provides to the residents at its two assistance centers in downtown Miami and Homestead, the Chapman Partnership offers them psychiatric and medical services, housing assistance and after-school tutoring and helps bring stability to families and children who comprise 44 percent of its residents.
In an innovation spearheaded by Hudson, Chapman is providing job training to help its residents achieve self-sufficiency so they can afford to stay off the streets.
Hudson says she is convinced that had her Uncle Billy had access to the type of services that Chapman offers, he would not have died at 65. “Eventually, we did get him off the streets,” she said, “but it was too late.”
HARVARD MBA
Rather than a typical nonprofit background, Hudson brings a Harvard MBA, more than two decades of working for some of the nation’s largest corporations and international business experience to the table.
Her last job before taking the helm at Chapman was at London-based ConvaTec, a $1.8 billion medical technology company, where she served as president of global franchises and innovation and was part of the team that led ConvaTec to the largest IPO of a healthcare company in Europe.
While the mission of Chapman is helping people, Hudson said it still must be run as a business, and by bringing her corporate skills to the nonprofit, she can help more people.
“Her predecessor came from the nonprofit world, but we felt we wanted to take a different turn,” said Allan Pekor, a longtime Chapman Partnership board member. The selection committee was “so impressed with her interviews,” said Pekor, who was a senior executive at Lennar Corp. for 29 years before his retirement. “Maybe instinctively you can identify a leader,” he said.
One of Hudson’s biggest challenges has been steering Chapman through the pandemic — not just keeping staff and residents safe, but also keeping the organization on sound financial footing as the pandemic ate into its major funding source.
It costs $57 per day to house and feed a Chapman resident. Supporting clients for a year after they leave represents another $726 investment per individual. Among those
Hudson’s Uncle Billy, who was born in 1949 and suffered from mental illness, ‘never could get the help he needed,’ she said.
expenditures is a resettlement kit.
The Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, which administers the proceeds from the county’s 1 percent Food and Beverage Tax, provides 63 percent of Chapman’s funding. “Things started to slow down during the pandemic, and the Food and Beverage Tax took a significant hit,” Hudson said.
In response, she said, Hudson conservatively budgeted for the 2020-21 fiscal year. Anticipating that private contributions would be smaller, she’s worked closely with corporate donors to put together more defined giving plans where their missions and donations are more closely aligned.
There have been no layoffs during the pandemic. “Every person at Chapman is needed,” Hudson said, “but we evaluated every other line-item expense.” A $1.2 million SBA-backed Paycheck Protection Program loan helped.
“She’s been outstanding in meeting the challenges of the pandemic,” said Pekor.
Throughout her career, Hudson has repeatedly plunged into new challenges — even if it has meant venturing into unknown waters where the current is churning.
“I’ve always had this determined spirit — that I could do it no matter where I came from. A lot of times I was scared but I just wanted to try,” she admitted.
“Proving she is capable, especially as an African-American woman is an important component of her personality,” said
Gary Hudson, her husband.
CLIMBING THE CORPORATE LADDER
With five job offers from major corporations when she graduated from college, Hudson chose Ralston Purina because it offered her a chance to be an account manager at age 22.
After a stint at Kraft Food where she was a senior accountant, Hudson decided it was time to go back to school, and she entered the MBA program at Harvard in 1995 when she was 27.
“It was very much a culture shock,” said Hudson, and a bit intimidating for someone who had spent her early childhood in the projects to sit in class with the scions of the founders of major
Wall Street firms. “I had to remind myself that I was there for a reason, too,” she said.
As her Harvard graduation approached, she had offers from three firms, and two of the three CEOs phoned her personally. “I saw it as a sign that the hard work was paying off,” Hudson said.
She got her first international business experience when Mead Corp., the Ohio-based company that makes planners, notebooks and business and educational supplies, sent her to Asia for three weeks. She has since visited more than 100 countries for both business and pleasure.
After other positions in marketing and finance, she decided it was time to realize her dream of running her own company. She found a small company on the south side of Chicago that she wanted to buy. “Everyone said I was crazy and I was. It didn’t work,” Hudson said. After quitting her job and investing considerable time in research and planning, she and the owner couldn’t come to terms.
Suddenly, she was back in the job market. What she didn’t anticipate was that it would be “very, very tough to find a job after 9/11,” Hudson said. She finally landed at AON Worldwide in March 2002 as an assistant vice president for corporate planning and analysis.
While at AON, she met Gary, who worked in another division. “He introduced himself and said he had seen me at church,” Hudson said.
FATEFUL MEETING IN ELEVATOR
Gary’s version of the story is more intriguing. He said he had been seated at an event at the Living Word Christian Center, a Chicago megachurch they both attended, musing about who
God would send him for his wife. “Everyone was seated and as I panned around the room, I noticed there was one person standing. It was Symeria because she was late,” he said.
But they didn’t meet then. He kept seeing her at restaurants and different places around Chicago, but they didn’t speak — until one day they were both getting in an elevator that only AON employees used. It was the woman from church, and they both worked at the same company. He later called her and asked her out for sushi.
They married in October 2004 and have just celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary. “We knew right away that we were right for each other,” said Hudson.
After AON went through a downsizing, she left and planned to take a break for a while. Thirty days into her break, a recruiter called about a “great opportunity” in the medical technology field. She had never worked in med tech before but that didn’t deter her. She spent the next dozen years in increasingly responsible positions at Hospira (now Pfizer), Baxter International and, finally, ConvaTec.
“I saw in Symeria a lot of talent, a lot of ambition and a lot of untapped potential,” said Ken Meyers, who was the head of human resources at Hospira when he met Hudson. He later became her mentor and has kept in touch through all her career moves, personal changes and geographic moves.
He describes her as “really smart,” confident in her own abilities and a calculated risk taker. “She’s a very thoughtful person. Before taking a risk either personal or professional, she thinks about all the pros and cons,” he said. “Over time, she’s developed very strong intuition.”
When an executive recruiter called about the ConvaTec job, the couple jumped at the chance because they had long dreamed of living abroad. In March 2016, she headed for the company’s headquarters in West London.
Despite the couple’s successes, they’ve both known adversity and challenges.
EARLY YEARS IN PUBLIC HOUSING
Hudson spent her early years in public housing. When the family moved to a house when she was in elementary school, she was thrilled when she found it had a shower.
“I grew up in the hood. She did too, but in a slightly better hood,” said Gary.
When it was time to pay her tuition for her first year at Alabama A&M University, a historically black land-grant university in Huntsville, her mother told her: “I don’t have the money — maybe next year.” Hudson learned about loans and quickly applied for one.
“When I was in high school, I didn’t know about loans or scholarships and I didn’t really get help from a guidance counselor,” Hudson said.
But by the end of her second semester as a freshman, her grades were so good, the university offered her a full ride, Hudson said. Another scholarship from a computer company meant when she graduated in 1990 with a degree in finance, accounting and computer science, she didn’t owe a penny.
Despite her high-flying ConvaTec job, “it was tough in London,” said Hudson. “There were not many female executives and not many who looked like me.” During a shareholders’ meeting, which she didn’t attend, she later learned that someone had said, “We know you have a token already.”
After the drain of 14hour days and working weekends during the IPO, Hudson needed to recharge.
YEAR-LONG TRAVEL BREAK LEADS THEM TO SOUTH FLORIDA
She took a year off, and Hudson and her husband traveled to the Sahara Desert, Singapore, Thailand and Bali.
“I wanted her to take a break from corporate; it was taxing on her,” Gary said. “The corporate world is a competition and it’s tough.”
After London, Hudson thought the couple would end up in Chicago, where they had rented out their home.
But Gary had another idea. He wanted to go to
‘‘ I SAW IN SYMERIA A LOT OF TALENT, A LOT OF AMBITION AND A LOT OF UNTAPPED POTENTIAL. Ken Meyers, Hudson’s former mentor at Hospira
South Florida, where they had a condo they used as a getaway and base for the frequent cruises they loved to take. They have since sold that place and moved into what Hudson describes as their forever home, a two-story Fort Lauderdale condo with a view of the ocean.
“Gary was looking at our whole life and I was looking at work,” said Hudson.
They became full-time Floridians and Hudson started to learn about the community and look for opportunities to engage.
“We felt like we were in paradise,” said Hudson. Still, she said she found relaxing difficult.
HONORING ‘THE SPIRIT OF UNCLE BILLY’
At the time the Chapman opportunity came up, Hudson was thinking that she’d end up in another corporate job somewhere along the East Coast and she was doing interviews in the med-tech industry.
When a friend invited her to a Chapman gala, Hudson found herself chatting with an executive recruiter at the reception. The recruiter told her to call. When she did two weeks later, the recruiter told her: “I have a wonderful opportunity in a nonprofit.”
It was the Chapman
CEO job. But before she agreed to begin the interview process, Hudson asked for a tour of Chapman. She was sold.
“My husband said he was secretly hoping I would be interested,” said Hudson. Taking the job was a collective decision for the couple, she said. “We come as a set. Gary reminded me I could honor the spirit of Uncle Billy with this job.”
“We were both very excited about Chapman. From our families we understood the Chapman world,” said Gary, who has a background in software engineering and works as a consultant on digital transitions.
When the couple lived in Chicago, Gary would go pick up Billy at the train station when he visited from time to time. They would take him to Costco, buy him some new clothes and try to get him stabilized, but Gary said they couldn’t talk him out of returning to the streets.
Early in the couple’s marriage, they also took in Gary’s two nephews when their living situation became difficult.
Gary also holds the Chapman mission dear. Before Hudson started her job, he said, “We strategized together about how to take Chapman to the next level.” One of the things they discussed was offering job training to Chapman residents. “You have to give people hope,” Gary said.
Gary grounds her, Hudson said. She calls him her buddy, her voice of reason, her coach. “We both can’t be intense,” she said, joking that “I would be on that ledge out there without him.”
“She’s the dreamer. I’m the guy who says, ‘Practically, does that make sense?’ “said Gary.
As Hudson was talking to Chapman about starting in January 2019, their son Garrett, who turned 3 on Nov. 2, came into their lives. When he was born, Gary took a year off to be a stay-at-home dad.
“I can’t describe the feeling of being a mom and parent. That little boy is everything to us,” Hudson said.
“Because of Garrett and Chapman, we are in the best place we’ve been in our 17 years of marriage,” said Gary.
“I look at it as the best is yet to come,” said Meyers, Hudson’s longtime mentor. “She is a gem and Miami should embrace her and polish that gem because she can contribute so much to the community.”