|
Profile: David Grove
Growing up in a middle-class suburb outside of Detroit, Michigan, David Grove's only experience with real poverty was on a junior high school church mission trip to an Appalachian town in Kentucky where people lived without running water or electricity.
As an adult volunteering with the Church of the Holy Comforter Episcopal in Vienna, Virginia, he discovered the term "food insecurity" and was astonished by the scale of the issue in the DMV area. During his volunteer work, he was particularly struck when he witnessed people emerging from the woods near Fairfax Circle's Home Depot to receive food deliveries. Additionally, he became aware of the food pantries at Madison and Oakton High Schools, which supported students and their families in need.
“You just wouldn’t think this would be the case in places like Vienna and Oakton,” David said.
Fast forward to the end of 2022, when a fellow Holy Comforter vestry member (David is now the Senior Warden) passed him a job description for Chief Operating Officer that Samaritan was seeking to fill. He saw it as a chance to apply his diverse experience over a 25-year career in the financial services industry and as a way to have an impact on his community through an organization he valued for its compassionate and effective ability to help people in need help themselves, one person at a time.
Now, just a year and a half later, David is energized to have been named by Samaritan’s Board of Directors to the role of Acting Executive Director in addition to his role as COO following the resignation of 12-year Executive Director Rev. David B. Wolf earlier this month.
“I’m really excited about helping to craft the next chapter in the life of Samaritan Ministry — not only continuing the rich 38-year history, but improving it,” David said.
“I would like to ensure that we are fully serving our participants under the mission and values of the organization, David said. “I also want to ensure that our staff is supported to the fullest and highest level, that they feel supported and taken care of as they take care of our participants,” he added. “Our employees are Samaritan Ministry.”
David said he has been especially impressed by the exceptional commitment of Samaritan’s staff, volunteers, partner parishes/churches, committee members, board, and donors, and sees this as one of the most important factors that will allow Samaritan to thrive into the future and as the world changes.
And, with wealth and income disparity widening all the time — when compared with the 50 states, the District of Columbia is second only to New York in income inequality overall, and the wealth gap between DC’s black and white residents is higher than any state, due largely to a history of systemic discrimination — David feels that organizations like Samaritan Ministry, with its emphasis on empowering participants to transform their own lives for their own dignity and self-sufficiency, rather than becoming reliant on assistance, has never been more valuable and important.
He looks forward to leading an assessment of Samaritan’s positioning for its own maximal strength and growth as the organization approaches its 40th birthday in 2026, and eventually, to facilitating a smooth transition to a next Executive Director.
Meantime, David hopes to still have plenty of time to pursue his favorite hobbies of cooking, reading, and travel with his wife, Maggie, an elementary school principal with Fairfax County Public Schools, in addition to his ongoing volunteer efforts with Holy Comforter.
| 
