Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta recently announced business leader Jai Ferrell will be the council’s new CEO, and the incoming leader is ready to “go beyond the cookie” starting July 1.
It marks the end of a nationwide search for the youth organization’s leader. Former CEO Amy Dosik served from 2014 until mid-2023 when she resigned. Kathleen Marran took over the interim role.
“We are delighted to welcome Jai Ferrell as our new leader,” Interim CEO Marran said. “Her vision and commitment to the Girl Scouts’ mission are evident, and I am confident she will drive our council forward, building on our strong foundation.”
Ferrell, a native Atlantan and former Girl Scout, will lead more than 23,000 Girl Scouts in 34 Metro Atlanta counties, and she will be the first Black woman to serve as the nonprofit’s CEO. The Girl Scouts aim to “build girls of courage, confidence and character” through community service, practical skills and badges.
The Board of Directors said in a press release that Ferrell was chosen for her “unique skill set and background” including marketing revenue management and stakeholder environments.
Search committee leader and incoming board chair Susan L. Lazaro echoed the board’s sentiment.
“Jai’s extensive experience and relevant connections to the Metro Atlanta community and beyond were important factors in our decision,” Lazaro said. We’re excited to see her support our mission while elevating the impact we have on the lives of girls across the entire area our council serves.”
The new CEO said she is a “non-traditional” recruit because she comes from a business background, previously serving as the Chief Commercial Revenue Officer for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. But for Ferrell, the job was an obvious next step.
“Honestly, I felt like the universe found me with this opportunity,” Ferrell said. “It aligns very well, but I’m very excited to see how I can bring any of myself into the role.”
Ferrell is a fifth-generation Atlantan who joined the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta in the 1990s. She started going to the chapter at her local church, where she did crafts and built community.
“Those things are part of who I am as a woman because I’m a girl’s girl all day,” Ferrell said. “Whether it be Girl Scouts or Spelman or any of my affinity groups, I advocate for girls and women, and so the fact that I have that in my fiber comes from Girl Scouts, it comes from this idea of sisterhood and friendship and advocacy and then also training and resources.”
Now Ferrell wants to take her experience into the Girl Scout of tomorrow — while providing representation for young girls in Atlanta, a city full of “Black excellence” she doesn’t know exists everywhere else.
“’I’m proud to be a part of that legacy. I’m also proud to kind of take the torch and make sure that next time I won’t be the first,” Ferrell said. “I’ll be one of many and make sure that glass ceiling I’m hitting, you know, I’m tapping into each time so, it’s a walking mat for the next level of girls and women.”
Part of that comes through in her vision for Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta. Ferrell said she enjoys being a “positive disruptor” as she aims for longevity. Her focus as CEO will be “going beyond the cookie.”
Girl Scout Cookies are cookies sold annually by scouts to raise funds for chapters, and are the most recognizable element of the 112-year-old organization. Ferrell said the cookies were a key part of the scouts because in early days members could not work or have bank accounts. They would bake the cookies to fund the mission.
“I love the idea of the cookie and the fiber of what it is, but I truly believe in order for us to grow, we have to go beyond what we’ve been doing for a very long time to be able to hit longevity of another 100 years,” Ferrell said.
In part, she hopes to raise awareness about what the scouts actually do: mental health programming, entrepreneurship, science education, camping, lobbying, beautification and a host of other programs — along with selling cookies.
There are a host of options for scouts today, but Ferrell wants to make sure she looks at how to equip diverse young women for the future world.
“The girls that we’re supporting now are going to have careers that we don’t even know what they aren’t yet,” Ferrell said. “How do we provide them with the skills and the tools in their toolbox to be able to meet that in the future?”
As a Lifetime Member of the Girl Scout Organization and an employee of Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta, I am extremely excited about this announcement and looking forward to the many opportunities she will oversee for the girls in our community and beyond. There are still many glass ceilings that need to be broken and our girls should be equipped and prepared to shatter them all in a world that is ever changing and evolving.