(PRESS RELEASE) After leading a pregnancy center in central Ohio for the past nine years, Ducia (pronounced “DOO-see-ah”) Hamm has been tabbed as Associate Director of Ministry Services for Heartbeat International, the organization announced Friday.
A long-time board member for community organizations and a community mental health specialist in Ashland, Ohio, Hamm led the Ashland Care Center starting in 2007, overseeing significant growth at the center while building a statewide coalition of pregnancy help leaders during her tenure.
“We’re very honored to have Ducia join our team at Heartbeat International,” Betty McDowell, Director of Ministry Services said. “She brings with her a wealth of value, experience and heart that will be a great blessing to our affiliates.”
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In nine years at Ashland Care Center, Hamm and her team quadrupled the amount of services, including client education, the center offered, and went from 400 client visits in 2006 to over 2,000 visits in 2014.
Hamm was also a founding board member and served a term as president for the Ohio Pregnancy Resource Alliance, a statewide effort to unite leaders from the 138 pregnancy help locations in the Buckeye State. During her tenure, Ohio legislators approved funding a pilot program for pregnancy centers to pay for parenting classes and material assistance that has now become an amendment to the state budget called the Pregnancy and Parenting Support Program.
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“What I’m really excited about is the job laid out before me just falls right into my skill set and my passions,” Hamm said. “I love to serve people, I love to teach, and I love to be able to learn from others.”
A current member of the Crestview School Board in central Ohio, a position she has held since 2007, Hamm has testified before both houses of the Ohio General Assembly during her career as a public servant and nonprofit leader.
“What Ducia brings with her is not only executive director experience and growing a pregnancy center, but has also served on a board for a pregnancy center and organized others at a state level, so she knows pregnancy centers well,” McDowell, who spent 20 years at a local pregnancy center before joining Heartbeat International’s staff in 2004, said. “You add to that her education in nursing and in the field of mental health, and she is a perfect fit for this position.”
