A West Side nonprofit recently announced that it has hired a full-time, paid executive director. Rachel Rettberg will become the executive director of A House in Austin, a nonprofit that “nurtures secure bonds for healthy families and bright futures,” according to a statement the organization released on Dec. 11, effective Feb. 4, 2019.
Prior to her appointment as executive director of A House in Austin, Rettberg had been the CEO of the Wonder Works Children’s Museum in Oak Park since 2015. She had also served on the nonprofit’s board since 2016. This spring, she completed the Oak Park River Forest Community Foundation’s Leadership Lab, where she focused on racial equity.
As executive director, Rettberg will oversee a staff of three part-time employees. The nonprofit also has a seven-person board of directors.
“I’m honored to lead A House in Austin into the future,” Rettberg said in the statement. “This position allows me to bring together my years of early childhood education experience with my deep interest in equity, the opportunity gap and building community to have a deep and lasting impact on families in the Austin neighborhood.”
Rettberg, a resident of Oak Park, is a native of the United Kingdom. She and her husband, Kyle, have three sons.
A House in Austin was founded in 2016 by Eric and Bret Hilgart in order to offer music classes and support groups to parents and their children in Austin.
The organization’s vision, according to its statement, “is of a community where all children and families have equal access to experiences and opportunity, leading to empowered parents and emotionally and physically healthy children and families.”
The nonprofit, organization officials said, is currently trying to raise funds to support programming and to finish renovations on a physical house on the corner of Pine and Race Streets, where the nonprofit plans to establish a parent-child center “where families will be able to receive private counseling and early intervention therapies in addition to its current programming.”
CONTACT: michael@austinweeklynews.com
