Meet Gretchen Stone, our new Operations Manager

We're glad to introduce Gretchen Stone, who recently joined the JSAW team as our Operations Manager.

Gretchen found us the way a lot of Minnesota parents do, through her kid. Her son had been skateboarding, so JSAW was already on her radar when the job showed up in her LinkedIn suggestions. She says she didn't really stop to think about it. "I immediately submitted my cover letter and resume, having no clue if I was even being reasonable." We're glad she did.

She comes to us from a new parent education center, where she was Director of Operations, and she sums up why this role made sense pretty simply: "I love sports, Jesus, and like to think operations is a talent I've been given."

Operations manager is one of the most demanding seats at JSAW. Gretchen oversees HR, bookkeeping, scheduling, inventory, and facilities, and she builds and analyzes the reports that tell us whether our programs are doing what we say they're doing. A single day can move from payroll to a vendor call to next month's staffing schedule to a walkthrough of the building, making sure it's safe and ready for the kids who will fill it that afternoon. It takes someone who can hold a dozen moving parts in view at once and make good calls on all of them. That's the work Gretchen has done before, and it's a big part of why we're glad she's here.

Her goal for the first six months is to get a full picture of our day to day and our team culture, and to find where she can make the biggest impact. She's approaching it with real respect for what's already in place. As she puts it, she wants to bring efficiency and communication "through systems that honor the existing workplace culture."

She's also well prepared for the noise around here. When we asked what in her background people wouldn't expect to be useful, she said, "I'm used to crying babies at work, so noise doesn't bother me."

Gretchen grew up in church with her mom as her Sunday school teacher, and said yes to Jesus at a Billy Graham crusade in downtown Minneapolis when she was six. She drifted from church as a young adult but never from God, and after her first daughter was born, the faith she inherited became something she owned for herself. She's been at Wooddale Edina since 2014, where you can still find her on Wednesdays and Sundays.

What stood out to her when she first walked into our space wasn't the ramps or the gear. "The community that has been built. It's apparent that it's an important facet to JSAW." That's also what she hopes every kid takes home with them.

Outside of work, Gretchen lives in Bloomington with her husband Scott, their four kids Emma, Jackson, Duncan, and Palmer, and their dog Susan. An open Saturday usually means getting outside, whether that's shooting pucks in the driveway, having friends over for a game, or romping around at Nine Mile Creek. As for riding herself, she's honest about it. "I am your camera gal." She can ski and snowboard, though it's been a while since she's tried either.

Say hi when you see her around the shop. You can also reach her at gretchenstone@jsaw.org