Kim Leach, deputy director of Serenity House of Clallam County, has been selected as the agency’s new executive director, succeeding Kathy Wahto.

“I believe in the mission, I understand the mission and I feel I’m in a good position to carry out the Ten Year Plan to end homelessness,” Leach said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge and the opportunity to lead such a great staff.”

Brando Blore, Serenity House board president, said, “The board is very satisfied to have someone with lengthy experience continuing the agency’s success.”

According to Blore, board members were pleased to hire a local person and someone with such substantive experience with the agency and the community.

Leach has experience with program development, community involvement, children in families, corrections, drug treatment and research. She worked for the Port Angeles School District prior to becoming Serenity House’s Child Advocate in 2003. She advanced from lead case manager for family service programs to deputy director in 2013.

Leach graduated cum laude from Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kan., with a bachelor’s degree in human services, with an emphasis in child advocacy and corrections.

Serenity House is a local nonprofit, founded in 1982, dedicated to preventing and ending homelessness in Clallam County.

For more information, call 452-7224 or e-mail serenity@olypen.com.