New St. Jude’s CEO welcomes opportunity, challenges

It’s been about three weeks since Marissa Shoop took over the helm as CEO of St. Jude’s Ranch for Children and according to her, it couldn’t have started much better.

“It’s been great,” she said. “The team has been extraordinarily welcoming. The community has really embraced me being here and it’s been such an honor to see all of the good work here in action.”

Shoop is no stranger to St. Jude’s or Southern Nevada being that she moved to the area two decades ago. She said the non-profit community is small so it didn’t take long for her to hear about the opening, left following the recent departure of Dr. Christina Vela, after nine years as CEO.

She was contacted in the summer to gauge her interest in the position.

“I knew right away I’d be interested in working for St. Jude’s Ranch for Children, particularly because of its impact on our most vulnerable, the youth. And, with my experience in nonprofit social services and trauma-informed care for the 20 years that I have been here, it was an easy decision.”

Shoop was notified in August that she had the job.

“I know this is both hard work and heart work,” she said. “It was not lost on me the enormity of this role for the young people we serve and the community. It deserves the St. Jude’s Ranch and its legacy of 60 years to continue moving ahead. I was extraordinarily grateful and excited but recognized the amount of work that has happened and is still to come. So, I knew when I took this job that the first few months were going to be about listening and learning.”

Regarding her hire, Cameron Dadgar, chairman of the St. Jude’s Ranch for Children board of trustees, said, “Marissa is a leader that any organization would be lucky to have. She walks in with an impeccable reputation built on integrity, excellence, and service to her community. St Jude’s Ranch for Children was fortunate to have an incredibly competitive and large talent pool apply and it was Marissa that was exactly the right person to step into this moment of history.”

Being the daughter of a military service member, Shoop moved around a lot as a kid. She said that has benefited her in the profession she chose being that everywhere she went she had to make new friends and connections because she was always the new one in school.

“So being that new kid on the block is not foreign to me at all,” she said of starting a new job. “But it gives you the honor of meeting so many new people.”

Shoop comes to St. Jude’s after serving as the vice president of strategy and impact at Three Square, a Las Vegas-based nonprofit organization that provides food to those less fortunate in Clark, Lincoln, Nye and Esmeralda counties. She earned her undergraduate degree at Fresno State University and her master’s degree from UNLV.

The St. Jude’s Healing Center and Amy Ayoub Academy of Hope, designed to help, educate and house victims of sex trafficking, is nearing its two-year anniversary. Shoop said it’s a great example of when a community comes together with a common goal in mind.

“That’s what makes the Healing Center successful and will continue to make it successful,” she said. “My goals and thoughts are to continue that thought and to ensure that our team and the community can utilize the Healing Center to its capacity, while strengthening the services that we have.”

The Healing Center came about as a result of the efforts led by Vela. Shoop acknowledges she has big shoes to fill but at the same time is excited about making the job her own.

“My job is not to actually completely fill those shoes as Christina would but to build upon them,” she said. “She left a wonderful groundwork of possibility and opportunity. My job is to look at it through the lens of me. Inherently, things may feel and look a little different but I hope they do not change the heart of this beautiful place.”