Volunteers of America Oregon (VOA Oregon) recently announced its President and CEO, Kay Toran, will retire in the first quarter of 2025. For over 25 years, she led the 128-year-old social services and community support organization as the first Black woman to serve in that role. Toran was instrumental in VOA Oregon’s purchase of a NE Glisan and 90th Avenue property that will host a new campus and treatment center. Her quarter-century of leadership will have a lasting impact on Oregon and the Montavilla neighborhood long after she completes her work with VOA Oregon.
Toran’s career included several management positions in the State of Oregon, culminating in six years as the Director of Oregon’s Child Welfare Agency and seven years as the Director of Oregon’s Affirmative Action Office. She received the Portland State University Center for Women’s Leadership Power Lunch 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award and the CEO of the Year for Non-Profits from the Portland Business Journal. A Portland native, she graduated from the University of Portland with a BA in Sociology and Psychology. Later, Toran attended Portland State University, earning an MSW from the School of Social Work, and later joined the educational institution as an Assistant Professor of Social Work.
Kay Toran is known for leading VOA Oregon in innovative new directions that better serve the community. She has expanded programs addressing addiction recovery, reentry services, domestic and sexual violence, and early childhood education. Her efforts to create a new six-acre campus at 8815 NE Glisan Street will significantly enhance the organization’s capabilities, consolidating administrative services and some of its substance use, behavioral health, and childcare services onto a long-dormant church property.
Organization leaders and the VOA Oregon board are committed to seeing the Montavilla project continue to fruition. VOA Oregon will announce details regarding the transition to new leadership in the coming months. The organization is actively working with a recruiting partner to find a new leader whose vision for the services provider can continue the growth trajectory that Toran enabled. VOA Oregon will host a retirement celebration for Kay Toran on March 6, 2025, paying tribute to her life’s work. The celebration will recognize her advocacy for underserved populations, which focused on addiction treatment and support for women in crisis.
Title image of VOA Oregon’s President and CEO Kay Toran provided courtesy of Volunteers of America Oregon
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