Story by KELSEY SHOEMAKER
Photography by GABE CAN

Beth Myers serves as the CEO of Girls Inc. Dallas, helping girls become changemakers

From a young age, Beth Myers’ female role models weren’t seeking education or careers, but by defying that status quo, she became the first woman in her family to graduate from a university.

“You can do anything the boys can do,” Myers says. “I didn’t have a lot of females who were showing me that was possible, so I just did it anyway.”

Myers has been a longstanding champion of community service, driven by a desire to address injustices in the world. This commitment led her to pursue a career focused on helping those living on the margins.

In 2017, Myers became the CEO of Girls Inc. of Metropolitan Dallas, one of the largest affiliates in the nonprofit organization. Girls Inc. provides a safe place for girls ages 6-18 to attend afterschool and summer programs that help them become confident and courageous young women. Under Myers’ leadership, the organization has expanded its support to women 18 and older, preparing them for college and career opportunities. Myers and the board’s next goal is to grow to 10,000 and eventually 25,000.

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED WORKING IN NONPROFITS? WAS THERE A CERTAIN EXPERIENCE OR INFLUENCE THAT GUIDED YOU?

Early in my college days, I got exposed to and learned about the injustices in our country that different people face as a result of the income or the zip code that they were born into that charts a different path. That awakened me to the situation of what people are faced with when they’re marginalized and that drove my direction into the study of social work. I grew up in a really small town, not exposed to many others and I thought it was a relatively easy life and as I learned more, not everybody has the same opportunity.

WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE GIRLS INC.?

Early after graduate school, I was with Big Brothers, Big Sisters and I led an affiliate in South Texas and then went and worked for the national organization. I’ve also done some consulting kind of in between there, but I took an executive role with the national organization.

WHAT WAS IT ABOUT GIRLS INC. THAT MOTIVATED YOU TO BE PART OF IT?

Early in 2016, my mother passed away and that was a big loss for me. Hillary Clinton was running as the first female candidate for president. Those two big losses in my life happened. I’m frustrated as a female, women in general just continuing to struggle and having to work twice as hard and not accomplishing some of the achievements that we should be. I’ve always been passionate about helping young people and trying to eliminate barriers to their achievements and help them reach their potential. (Girls Inc.) crosses my path, not once, but a couple of times and after looking
at it, I was like maybe I should. The idea of this path of female-driven empowerment and navigating and breaking down some of these barriers really appealed to me. It excites me that I can take something that has a really strong foundation and help energize and bring some perspective and leadership and take it to a place that they didn’t think was possible.

WHAT ABOUT THE PANDEMIC MADE IT HARD AND HOW DID YOU GET THROUGH IT?

It was impacting everything within the organization. When you think about a company going through the pandemic, they have experts in HR, legal experts and crisis teams who could come together and brainstorm. We didn’t have that. It was just me, my staff and the board and we had to figure out everything for all the facets of the organization. Not only was I having to support the staff, but we needed to see how we were going to be able to serve the girls and be there for them. We didn’t know what was going to happen with the economy, what was going to happen with our donors,
but we were going to make it through this. The other thing was asking ourselves how do we keep our team’s mental health in a good place so that they can be there for the girls. Our girls come from families who are really struggling. The majority of them are low-income and from low-income neighborhoods. Their struggles are even greater and everything is compounded for them. They’re losing their childcare place, their safe space and their sisterhood.

WHAT ARE SOME OTHER MILESTONES YOU’VE HAD OR SEEN IN YOUR CAREER?

I think it’s important to be a role model for people in general, but especially for girls. You’re going to face hurdles and there’s going to be lots of hardships, but those are the things where you learn the most that will prepare you for the next big accomplishment. My mother passing away, and what I went through over the course of that journey with her stage four pancreatic cancer diagnosis gave me the tools that I embrace. In November, I personally received a breast cancer diagnosis and being faced with, ‘What does this mean? And how am I going to lead the organization while navigating through my own cancer diagnosis?’ I’ve got the strongest board and the strongest team and we are going to face it.

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU TO BE INVOLVED IN NONPROFITS?

The nonprofit work is so needed. It gives others in the community an avenue to impact their community in ways that by themselves, they can’t do. Whether that’s volunteering or donating to an organization, we can just help more collectively than we can do by ourselves. In my 34-year career, I have been fortunate to see firsthand the impact a nonprofit can have in the community for the people they’re serving and it’s just been a game changer. And you see that every day, it just motivates you. There’s so many philanthropic people who want to volunteer and it just shows you a sense of humanity and greatness within people.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
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