Executive Director
Dean Svoboda
Last September, AAFS celebrated our 15th AAFSiversary. We officially began in 2004 and wow, has it been a wild ride. I remember everything, really...everything from the first 15 years;
I remember having to shut down for close to 3 months as we figured out our insurance, I remember making a deal with Third Academy to use a room in their basement for $250 a month for our first office space, I remember recruiting potential staff for AAFS activities (as we only had 2 or 3 official staff) while ‘on the floor’ at my part time jobs (Society from Treatment of Autism, Janus Academy, CBE, CLASS ACT) and I remember hiring our first full time employee, Jamie Anderson, as a Program Director….this was such a monumental day for AAFS.
This was the day we began to share the leadership and build our Leadership Team and for me, the AAFS Leadership Team really personifies what AAFS is. Every person who has ever graduated to the AAFS Lead Team has earned it and every one has made an immeasurable impact on what we do and on me. You cannot ascend to Leadership at AAFS without excelling as an SEG, it is integral that every leader at AAFS can empathize with our front line staff.
It has always been important to me that leaders at AAFS know what it is like at Calaway Park in the middle of August with youth who may be full of sugar and dehydrated so they can best support the SEG Team working for them. It is also integral that our leaders not only understand our mission and vision, they live and breathe it and that means, recent experience on the front line is integral to their success.