CHCA community manager chosen

Betty Brady at last week’s CHCA board meeting.
(Photo by James Sturdivant)

by JAMES STURDIVANT

The Chestnut Hill Community Association voted last week to approve the hiring of Betty Brady as the group’s new community manager.

Brady, the former manager of the Chestnut Hill Community Center, met all of the criteria set by the CHCA search committee, chair Leigh Filippini told the board of directors. These include strong administrative skills, business acumen, experience with designing and implementing budgets and a talent for working with the public.

“She likes making others look good, and that will be part of her job,” Filippini said.

Brady’s “tenacity” in seeking the community manager’s job also helped convince the hiring committee to choose her over other highly qualified applicants, Filippini said.

“She approached it from so many angles, and networked beautifully ” Filippini said.

“I would be honored to work with all of you,” Brady told the board before the vote was taken to approve her hire. “I will be your tool to help you accomplish what you want to do. I know it.”

Before her tenure at the community center, where she successfully increased sales revenue at the Women’s Exchange bakery, Brady was sous chef at the Philadelphia Art Museum. She has worked as a chef and teacher at Koolinary Kids, founded and ran a mail-order doll company for six years and kept the books for her husband’s carpentry contracting business for 15 years. She is a trained chef and holds an associate degree in business from Temple University.

Brady is a lifelong resident of Philadelphia. She is married to Don Brady, a master carpenter, and has two sons: Christopher, 36, currently stationed on the USS Kitty Hawk; and Matthew, 35, who works for Wachovia’s mortgage division in Florida.

The responsibilities of the community manager, according to a job description approved by the CHCA board last week, include overseeing the association’s financial affairs, assisting in fundraising and revenue-generating programs, file maintenance, oversight of Chestnut Hill Community Fund-held properties (in collaboration with a yet-to-be-hired property manager), budgeting and staff management. It is a part-time (30 hours a week) position.