The two main drivers in Beth Houghton’s professional life have always been passion and compassion.
Houghton will retire July 11, after nearly six years as Chief Executive Officer of the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County. This is work about which she remains passionate – Houghton concisely defines juvenile welfare as “Strengthening children, and supporting children so that they are safe, they are well-prepared for school, they do well in school and they have the best lives they can have. In all the ways you might think about that.”
Founded in the 1940s, the tax-supported organization – the first in the country – advocates for children’s issues and underserved families, and overseeing the funding of programs that serve more than 77,000 children and families annually.
Compassion, of course, plays a major role. “What brought me here was a longtime love of children,” Houghton said. “And the people here, they were smart about it. A lot of data goes into the choices that we make, a lot of research across the country goes into what works and what just sounds good but may not work. We want to be effective.”
Among the Houghton-led initiatives: Integration of behavioral health therapists into Pinellas pediatric practices, for increased access to mental health screenings, interventions and treatments; investments aimed at eliminating childhood hunger, resulting in 27 million meals for kids to fill food gaps and stock Pinellas pantries over a five-year span; and the Sleep Baby Safely campaign that has significantly reduced the number of infant sleep-related suffocation deaths and expanded to 18 Florida counties as a statewide best practice.
JWB itself won Mental Health America’s Bell Seal Award for Mental Health in the Workplace in 2024.
So why leave now? “I’m retiring because the kids I haven’t given enough to are my three children and my five grandchildren, two of which we’re raising,” Houghton said. “I’m having a little less energy than I did when I was 25. And I want to make sure I give them the time and the space and the love – and the calm. That’s kind of my job at my house, to be the calm.”
She said, only half-kidding, that she has “failed at life/work balance,” although she currently sits on just three boards (Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Foundation for International Missions and Tampa Bay Thrives). She previously served as Board President of Great Explorations, the Houghton-Wagman Children’s Museum (named for Houghton and her husband, real estate investor Scott Wagman).
Post-retirement, she said, “I promised myself not to get a part time something. Could I continue doing this job if I managed my time, to not read everything that’s out there about kids or their emotional needs? Probably. But when there’s more to do, I do it.
“So it’s time for me to really fully engage more with my five grandkids. When you’ve got a 10 to 12 hour day, and then emails over the weekend, there’s not much juice left for the people you love.”
Houghton has devoted a good percentage of her life to public service. She grew up in Oklahoma City and followed in her father’s footsteps – a CPA (MBA from Tulane University) and an attorney (she graduated with high honors from Stetson University College of Law) she went to work for a major accounting firm.
She found it mentally stimulating but ultimately unsatisfying. Little passion, and no use for compassion.
In 1986 she became Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel for St. Petersburg’s All Children’s Hospital. She was there for 12 years, and being around people whose sole purpose was to heal, and do good things, scratched the itch for her.
“I always knew that if I made a decision that was for the right reason, or I took something to the CEO and said ‘Here are the risks, et cetera …’ one of the phrases he often used, in terms of hiring and firing, was ‘Would you have that doctor operate on your child or your grandchild? If not, they shouldn’t be here.’ That single-mindedness of caring about kids.”
Family issues took her away for a couple of years, during which she co-founded Signature Bank (“We sold it at just the perfect time”) and served on the Board of the St. Petersburg Free Clinic.
She was the Free Clinic’s CEO for just under eight years, where her fiscal expertise and legal acumen came in handy. She also used the time to immerse herself in the city’s nonprofit, human services world.
Houghton replaced the retiring Dr. Marcie Biddleman as Juvenile Welfare Board CEO in September, 2019.
During her first months, she faced an unprecedented challenge as Covid-19 wreaked havoc on working families. “Parents couldn’t go to work because there was nowhere for their kids to be,” Houghton recalled, “and the CDC was coming out with different guidance every day.”
And so the organization pivoted its priorities, as to which groups they helped needed the most assistance, and when (hint: It was always right now). “The agencies we fund, we provide the money – they couldn’t do it without the money, but they’re actually the ones face to face with children and parents,” she said.
“As a community, not just us but a community who cared for kids, we shifted things. Things that weren’t in their budget, we paid for. Because they needed it to stay open. If they needed something to de-fog the space, to disinfect it, we bought more than a few of those.
“We were all flying blind. It’s not that anybody across the nation knew specifically what we ought to be doing, but we tried to look at the best guidance. Particularly guidance that was directed to children. And then tried to support those agencies that provide lots of free school care, and lots of infant care, all around the county.”
The twin hurricanes of 2024 similarly upset the way of things.
Houghton credits her staff – the JWB employs 75 – with connecting parents with aid organizations, literacy programs, health professionals, schools and a myriad of others. “We have some extraordinarily talented people who help coach them,” she said, “or provide learning opportunities for different agencies to do what they might do better. Or we bring in top-notch speakers for all agencies.
“But we have everything from accountants and IT geniuses to social workers and statisticians, evaluators who help us answer the question ‘OK, we did this thing, it sounds good, but did it actually make a difference?’ And ‘How would you measure that difference?”
As she strolls into the figurative sunset – assuming she’s able to stay away from the work that she loves – Houghton is confident that she’s made a difference.
And how would she measure that difference?
“I think I did a pretty good job of empowering our employees to do amazing things. They did it, but I do think I gave them encouragement, space, a lot of brainstorming … but I’m really most proud of them. And that I got to coach them, a little bit, in being even better.”
Read the article as originally published at https://stpetecatalyst.com/juvenile-welfare-board-ceo-beth-houghton-says-goodbye/
