Portland Adventist Community Services (PACS) has new leadership. Leonard Yost joined the organization in May as Executive Director.
Yost takes the helm of one of Adventist Community Services' largest branches. He will manage the small group of staff and large team of volunteers that make it possible for PACS to serve thousands in the Portland area every year.
"It's such a privilege to be a part of an organization that is dedicated to helping needy individuals," he said.
Yost and his wife Linda are relocating to the Northwest from California where he was Employee Recruitment Director for Adventist Health corporate headquarters. For Yost, it's a return to Portland. A portion of his 28 years with Adventist Health was spent at the Adventist Medical Center.
Yost now fills a position that had been vacant since the departure of Rhonda Whitney in January. She directed PACS for almost 13 years before accepting the position of Oregon Conference Community Outreach director.
Yost has plans to build on the large ministry that PACS has become. In 2006, the PACS Food Pantry received 70,634 visits from low-income clients, and the PACS Health Clinic facilitated 1,491 appointments for individuals who lacked health insurance.
Even as Yost works on ways to reach more people, he regularly reminds the staff that he is not the real executive director of PACS. He points to the picture he hung in his office of the young Hebrew carpenter and says, "Jesus is the real executive director of PACS. He is the one who built this ministry, and He is the one who will continue to make it grow."
