Clancy was recently named the CEO of St. Vincent de Paul Phoenix, which serves Central and Northern Arizona and is the largest St. Vincent de Paul chapter in the world. Leading an organization that employs more than 300 Arizonans wasn’t on Clancy’s radar when she was growing up in a family of four kids in North Central Phoenix. She thought she would be a math teacher. Still, Clancy was exposed to volunteer service while attending Xavier College Preparatory — “That sort of faith aspect of living out the Gospel values of caring for people in need and Catholic social teaching,” she said. While attending the University of Notre Dame, Clancy had a transformative experience. She took part in Urban Plunge, a program that allows participants to immerse themselves in poverty in their own hometowns. Over Christmas break her sophomore year, Clancy worked alongside the folks of André House, a ministry serving vulnerable populations in Phoenix. She says from the first time she witnessed homelessness, she couldn’t get it out of her mind. “I had never seen that level of suffering, and I couldn’t understand why we wouldn’t do something,” she said. “After that, I really couldn’t look away.” After college, Clancy gave a year of service through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, working in a transitional housing program for families in Northern California. “That was eye-opening because I worked right alongside families and saw them in their moment of need,” she said. Clancy was 22 and doing case management when an incident took place that forever changed how she viewed her work. “There was a family that had five kids. Their oldest daughter was 16 and kind of spoke for the family because it was Spanish-speaking,” Clancy said. The family had outstayed their time in the shelter and the staff made the decision to ask them to leave. “I remember thinking at the time that we were there to help support them and, instead, we were making it worse,” Clancy said. Unable to face the family, Clancy hid in her office. There was a knock at the door. When Clancy opened it, it was the 16-year-old daughter. “I prepared myself for her to lash out and be angry,” Clancy said. “Instead, she stretched out her arms and said, ‘I just want to thank you.’” Clancy learned something powerful that day that has informed her work ever since. “In people’s moment of greatest need, they just need to know they’re not alone,” Clancy said. “That someone is there, even if they can’t fix it.” St. Vincent de Paul Phoenix has been here, serving Arizonans in need for 76 years, and Clancy is the first female leader of the nonprofit in that time. “I’ve seen how much it means to other women of all ages, younger and older,” she said. “That surprised me a little bit, the depth of feeling about it. It amplifies what it means to others in terms of having role models or examples of people in the world.” “ “ They just need to know they’re not alone “ “ It was jusT about the work Clancy is honored to be the first woman CEO of St. Vincent de Paul Phoenix. 52 | FRONTDOORS MAGAZINE

Clancy’s journey to leading the organization started two decades ago. “We were living in Baltimore and felt that we needed to be here, closer to family,” she said. She and her husband moved the family to Phoenix in 2002, and Clancy started working at St. Vincent de Paul part-time, the first of a few stints over the last 20 years. “I have four kids, so I had a little bit of back and forth while trying to contribute to what’s going on in the world, as well as take care of my family,” she said. Having worked in several roles, Clancy is happy serving in whatever way helps the organization most at the time. To get a sense of why, you need to understand something she witnessed years before. Back in Baltimore, she worked at a school for low-income kids that was run by several different religious congregations of sisters and brothers. “It was a really small school, but they were role models of servant leadership for me, watching how they lived out their faith and service so joyfully,” Clancy said. Something else about how they worked stood out to her. Someone would be the principal and then, when their turn was up, they would go back into the classroom happily. “So at one point, there was a new principal, but six of the different faculty — all sisters and brothers in different congregations — had been principals. They were happy to let her be the principal and were there to support her,” she said. Clancy found it an important model for this challenging work. “Watching how gracefully they did that and how it allowed them to serve over a long period of time was an important part of my formation,” she said. “It really wasn’t about them. It was just about the work.” St. Vincent de Paul by the Numbers 2.66 MILLION HOT MEALS SERVED last year through five charity dining rooms 100,000+ FOOD BOXES DELIVERED annually by local volunteers 5.9 MILLION POUNDS OF FOOD DISTRIBUTED through the St. Vincent de Paul Central Food Bank 387 HOSTED COMMUNITY DRIVES including Turkey Tuesday — the nation’s largest turkey drive 170,000 VOLUNTEER HOURS SERVED through St. Vincent de Paul 38,600 SHELTER NIGHTS provided annually 16 THRIFT STORES operated across the state INNOVATIVE PROGRAMMING including the Rob & Melani Walton Urban Farm, Ozanam Manor and the award-winning Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Medical & Dental Clinic