HACAP CEO Jane Drapeaux reflects on tenure ahead of retirement

HIAWATHA — Jane Drapeaux’s nearly three-decade career with Hawkeye Community Action Program began with a simple ad in the newspaper.

Drapeaux, now the agency’s CEO, was visiting her sister in Des Moines in 1999 when a posting for a new Head Start director at the Hiawatha-based nonprofit caught her eye. At the time, she was holding a similar role in South Dakota, but the switch would bring her closer to home.

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“I’d always wanted to come back to Iowa, so I told my husband I was going to apply,” said Drapeaux, who grew up in southeast Iowa. “I ended up getting the job, and in about six weeks time, I accepted the job, we sold our house and came to Cedar Rapids.”

In the 26 years since, Drapeaux said she’s never looked back. She has held several positions at the community action agency, including time spent as Head Start lead, operations director and — eventually — chief executive officer.

Now, she’s getting ready to say goodbye.

Drapeaux, 70, is set to retire on Dec. 31. As she rounds out her tenure with HACAP, Drapeaux told The Gazette she is grateful for the time spent doing “the best job in the world” and is excited to see where the organization will go next.

“I really love everything we do here,” she said. “There are so many good things that we can do to impact the friends and neighbors who walk through our doors every single day” that will continue for years to come.

Philosophical match leads to lifelong ‘calling’

Drapeaux grew up in Brighton, Iowa — a small Washington County town roughly 45 miles south of Iowa City. She attended college at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, where she obtained her degree in elementary special education.

Her three sisters also sought careers in education, although Drapeaux said her approach to the field was slightly different given her bent toward administrative work.

After graduation, she took a job as education coordinator for a Head Start program in South Dakota and later became the program director. Her initial role was to supervise and coordinate teaching staff — a lofty task for a new graduate.

“I remember walking into the first meeting — I was just 22 years old — and seeing this whole room of people,” Drapeaux recalled. “Some of them were my grandmother’s age. Some were my mom’s age, and some were my age or younger. And I remember thinking ‘Oh my, what have I gotten myself into?’”

She quickly settled into the role, however, aided by an immediate connection to the goals, philosophy and mission of the Head Start program.

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Head Start, offered nationwide but run at the local level, is an early childhood education program that provides vulnerable families with low- and/or no-cost child care. Drapeaux said she was quickly taken with that mission and with how the program helps parents become “early advocates” for their children.

“I became a true supporter very early,” she said. “The impact (the program) has on children and their entire families, to me, was just so amazing.”

She carried that same belief throughout her time working for the South Dakota program and into her role at Hawkeye Community Action Program (HACAP).

Her passion later grew to encompass the organization’s work as a whole — which includes a suite of programs meant to help area residents in need — and within a few years of joining the team, she took on the role of operations manager.

In that role, she oversaw a variety of HACAP programs such as the organization’s regional food bank and affordable housing initiatives — a background that served her well when she was chosen in 2007 to become the organization’s next CEO.

Organization grew under Drapeaux’s leadership

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In the nearly 20 years since, Drapeaux has overseen significant growth in practically all aspects of HACAP’s programming — although she is quick to share credit with the rest of the HACAP team.

When she started as CEO, the nonprofit operated with an annual budget of roughly $32 million. Now, it tops out at more than $60 million and employs more than 300 workers in communities across Eastern Iowa.

Drapeaux was at the helm for the entirety of that growth, which in 2020 included a significant expansion of HACAP’s service area into three additional counties to bring its total up to nine in Eastern Iowa.

“I’m a big believer in taking risks and trying new things,” she said. “We have grown into a lot of different programs, and I really believe that helps us be out there and become part of a system that’s going to make a (positive) change.”

Throughout that growth, Drapeaux said the organization saw several significant events that changed or challenged its operations, including the 2008 flood, the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 derecho that took out the food bank’s generator.

She credited the larger HACAP team for being able to weather those figurative and literal storms while continuing to serve the broader Eastern Iowa community with a wide array of services.

And it’s that same team that Drapeaux said she will miss most after her retirement.

“It’s bittersweet,” she said. “I love coming to work, seeing the people and talking to them to find out what’s going on in their lives. I’m going to miss that a lot.”

Still, she espoused strong confidence in the organization and its leadership team to continue its operations as it works to keep meeting communities’ most pressing needs.

The nonprofit last month announced that it has hired Matt Majeski as its next CEO, and he will begin Jan. 1. Meanwhile, Drapeaux said she is looking forward to spending more time with her family, volunteering in the community and ticking several items off her traveling bucket list.

“I’ve loved working here, but I want to pursue some different interests now,” she said. “I’m ready, and excited, to hand (the CEO spot) off to somebody else.”

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