Zdunek Resigning as YMCA CEO

The Latest from Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell

JENNA ZDUNEK, WHO’S served as the CEO of the David and Thu Brule Marquette County YMCA since 2016, is resigning her post to take a job with the YMCA of the USA. Her last official day with the local Y is February 28th

She and her family will be staying Marquette.

“I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished together at our YMCA,” Zdunek said. “The organization is a vital cornerstone of our community…”

Her new job will be Senior Director of CEO Engagement for the YMCA of America—she’ll be helping support small and midsize Y’s around the country. “It’s a brand new department and a brand new team,” she explains. She expects to get a better handle on her responsibilities at a YMCA convention in Chicago in April.

Zdunek, who’s been an employee of the YMCA since 2001, helped guide the Y through Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in 2017 when it found itself facing a $7 million debt—the result of an overly ambitious expansion of facilities, programs, and staffing by the previous administration.

But through Zdunek’s leadership and the support of the YMCA Board and some generous donors, the Y found its way back to solvency, and emerged from bankruptcy in 2019.

Ever since, Zdunek and the Board have been extremely conscientious in their spending plans, determined not to expand any programs or facilities for the 5000 member organization unless the funding had already been raised.

Plans to build a new and fully-funded field house at the YMCA are proceeding, with the expectation that construction will start later this year.

Zdunek says she and her family will still be members of the local Y. “This new job is exciting for me,” she says, “but I’ll tell you, I’m going to miss a lot of aspects of my job here.”

The YMCA Board is now undertaking a search for her replacement.