Photo: Courtesy Chapman Partnership

Symeria Hudson (MBA 1997) never expected to find herself leading a nonprofit. Hudson had spent the first 25 years of her career in the corporate world—the first 10 years in consumer goods and then 15 in the medical technology sector. From 2016 to 2018, she was president of global franchises and innovation at ConvaTec, helping to prepare the $1.8 billion, London-based company to go public. After its successful IPO, Hudson took some time off to travel with her husband but fully expected to return to the medical technology sector after a year-long break. So when the recruiter called from Chapman Partnership, a homeless-services nonprofit in Miami-Dade County, Hudson said she wasn’t interested.

Yet she couldn’t stop thinking about the opportunity—and her Uncle Billy. Her mother’s brother had struggled with mental illness and spent decades on the street, despite his family’s efforts. “I did some soul searching,” after the recruiter’s call, Hudson says. She realized that a position at Chapman Partnership would be “an incredible way to honor Uncle Billy and an incredible way to make a difference.” Hudson joined the organization as CEO in 2019. Now, “everybody knows Uncle Billy here at Chapman Partnership,” she says.

Hudson has brought both her personal experience with the plight of homelessness and her business knowledge to the organization. Those combined perspectives led her to focus on innovation in her first several years in the role. “I wouldn’t say ‘innovation’ is a dirty word in nonprofits, but it is one that is not spoken often,” she acknowledges. Under Hudson’s leadership, the organization—which runs two facilities with about 800 beds and access to medical, educational, and other social services—debuted the Social Enterprise Academy, an intensive job-skills training program for residents. They are also exploring new options for donors, including giving stock and cryptocurrency.

Hudson also has learned a lot from the nonprofit world, she says, because it demands authenticity. “In the corporate world, people didn’t always get a chance to know the real and authentic Symeria. Now I feel like the real me. The real Symeria shows up every single day.”

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