United Way Miami finds new leader at home after a national search
After launching a national search for a new CEO, Miami’s United Way found the “perfect” candidate right at home.
The high-profile nonprofit agency’s new president and CEO is Symeria T. Hudson, 54, a former corporate executive with a Harvard MBA. Since January 2019, Hudson has led the Chapman Partnership, a $70 million organization that provides housing and services to the homeless in Miami-Dade County.
“This was a thorough and inclusive search,” United Way Miami board Chair Robert Sanchez said Friday in a statement issued by the agency. “We engaged United Way Miami’s volunteers, community partners and staff to identify the characteristics of the leader needed to take the organization into the future. Symeria’s unique and diverse experience, leadership skills and vision make her the perfect person to step into this role.”
Hudson’s first day in her United Way leadership post will be August 5. She takes over from interim CEO Joe Zubizarreta, who assumed the position temporarily when Maria C. Alonso stepped down in November 2021 after more than four years on the job.
“I’m excited to get started,” Hudson said in the United Way statement. “The staff, volunteers and leadership are amazing at United Way Miami. The mission of United Way Miami is more important than ever as our community continues to evolve. We will collaborate with our partners and work together to improve the lives of our fellow citizens.”
After Hudson starts at United Way, Peter T. Pruitt will become interim president of the Chapman organization. He was executive chair of the group’s board from 2018 to 2021 and has been a board member since 2011.
The United Way raises and distributes money to agencies that provide people in need with social services, with a focus on early childhood education, financial stability and health. The agency played a key role in supporting Miami-Dade families during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hudson, who grew up in Huntsville, Ala., spent two decades in the healthcare and medical-technology industries in the United States and the United Kingdom before turning to the nonprofit world as CEO at Chapman. The organization, the private arm of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, manages assistance centers in downtown Miami and Homestead and helps residents work their way to permanent housing.
Besides the master’s degree in business administration from the Harvard Business School, Hudson holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from Alabama A&M’s School of Business.
Before joining Chapman, she was president of global franchises and innovation at London-based ConvaTec, a medical-tech company. She was on a team that led ConvaTec to an initial public stock offering that was the largest for a healthcare company in Europe.
In a November profile in the Miami Herald, Hudson said her career turn to Chapman and the nonprofit arena was inspired, in part, by the memory of an uncle who suffered from mental illness and was homeless but never could receive the help that he needed.