It’s a 15-year journey for a student who starts preschool at age 3 to graduate from high school. That’s also how long Abby McNulty will have been the head of the Park City Education Foundation after she steps down from the position next month.
The Park City nonprofit’s president and CEO will vacate the role to join Salt Lake Community College as its vice president of institutional advancement starting Aug. 1. The position allows McNulty to continue her work in education at a student-centric organization while growing and challenging herself in new ways.
But after more than a decade with the Education Foundation, it’s bittersweet for McNulty to step away.
“It’s time to graduate,” she said.
McNulty took charge of the Education Foundation in 2008 after working at the Sundance Institute. The nonprofit, which was formed in the 1980s, was grappling with the impacts of the recession and questioned whether it would be able to continue operations.
Young and green, McNulty said she was backed by an innovative board that helped the Education Foundation re-establish its mission to help the community, building a strong internal infrastructure along the way.
McNulty still remembers the creation of the Afterschool Program, which was right around the time she started. The Education Foundation worked with a school principal and a private donor to begin funding a safe place at McPolin Elementary School for students to go after the school day finished when the Boys and Girls Club closed in 2007. Program coordinators supported children with academics as well as their social and emotional well-being.
“At the time it was really risky because it was all of the resources we had … and within two years all of the elementary schools wanted to have after-school programs. Nothing like that existed at the time,” she said. She added the program quickly expanded to all four Park City School District elementary schools, and has grown to Ecker Hill Middle School and Treasure Mountain Junior High School in recent years.
Many other aspects of the Education Foundation have changed during McNulty’s tenure.
She helped increase the nonprofit’s budget from $250,000 to more than $3 million a year, which McNulty attributed to the philanthropic spirit of Park City. The role of the organization has also become more integrated into the community as many programs Park City students love are “fed and funded” by the Education Foundation.
McNulty emphasized the importance of the community supporting education through voting, volunteering or donating as Utah ranks among the lowest in the nation for its per-student spending.
Opportunities funded by the Education Foundation range from classroom grants that are awarded to teachers with innovative ideas; new K-12 classes that teach coding; the Bright Futures Initiative focused on first-generation students, which she hopes to continue working with in her new role; and an affordable preschool option to help build a base for academic success.
For McNulty, the job has been rewarding.
“I think in education, you have to plant the seeds. And then they bear fruit many, many, many years, if not generations, later,” she said. “I’m a believer that every problem has a solution. I think sometimes it just takes time, sometimes it takes more creativity and sometimes it takes a different kind of collaboration than originally anticipated, but I think it’s all part of the work.”
McNulty is excited for the Education Foundation to usher in the next era with fresh ideas and a new approach. She hopes to be remembered as someone who showed up to work every day committed to making the community stronger.
Those who worked with the nonprofit’s leader expressed an appreciation for her dedication to serving students, teachers and the School District.
Joelle Kanshepolsky of Pathway Associates will take on the role of CEO during the interim. She previously served as the interim CEO of the Park City Community Foundation from 2021 to 2022 and knows the Park City area well.
The Education Foundation’s board of directors expects the president and CEO position to be posted in September after summer break wraps up. McNulty expects a fairly easy transitional period and said she looks forward to watching who is chosen from the sidelines.
“I had the privilege of stewarding the organization for 15 years during a 40-year history. My chapter was just one chapter of many,” she said.