News

By Paula Detwiller

    After years of volunteer service to the Literacy Council of Palm Beach County, Kristin Calder has been named to head up the organization. Calder, of Boynton Beach, was appointed CEO by the Literacy Coalition Board in December and started her new job on Jan. 13. She replaces longtime CEO Darlene Kostrub, who retired.
   Calder, 40, has more than 15 years of leadership, communications and fundraising experience in the Palm Beach County nonprofit sector. Prior to joining the Literacy Coalition as CEO, she was director of communications for the Bethesda Hospital Foundation, where she worked for 12 years. She is a graduate of Leadership Palm Beach County; a past president of the Junior League of Boca Raton and the Public Relations Society of America, Palm Beach Chapter; and a recipient of the Chamber of the Palm Beaches Young Athena Award.
    A native of Huntington, W.Va., Calder holds a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from Marshall University. She and her husband, Glen, have three children.
    “As a mother of school-aged children and an active community volunteer, I’ve witnessed the needs and issues in our community regarding education and literacy,” Calder says. “It’s exciting to be part of the solution.”
    In Palm Beach County, an estimated 1 in 7 adults lack basic literacy skills. The goal of the Literacy Coalition is to ensure that every child and adult in Palm Beach County becomes a reader.
    Calder is working to promote several fundraisers and campaigns, including the coalition’s signature Love of Literacy Luncheon scheduled for March 7 at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, and the Read Together 2014 campaign in which county residents will read a community-selected book together between March 7 and April 9, joining book discussions all over the county.
    On March 22, the coalition is sponsoring a one-day training session to prepare community volunteers to work with adult literacy students. The tutor training will take place at the coalition’s new headquarters: the Blume Literacy Center for Education, Training and Outreach at 3651 Quantum Blvd., in Boynton Beach. For more information, visit www.literacypbc.org.