Our Staff

Stacy Long currently serves as the Executive Director for United Way of Gordon County and previously served as the Executive Director for Voluntary Action Center for twelve years. Prior to her work in non-profit leadership, Stacy’s career began as a bank teller at the age of eighteen. Over the next ten years, she worked her way from a teller to a bank lender while achieving both a General Banking and Commercial Lending diploma from the American Institute of Banking. Stacy was honored as the 2009 Georgia Future Business Leaders of America Businessperson of the Year for her work mentoring high school students in job skills training. Stacy’s leadership path has been anything but traditional. At the age of twenty-eight, she decided to step out in faith and make a career change to become the Executive Director of the Voluntary Action Center (VAC). This organization was one of the oldest non-profit organizations in Gordon County and was facing significant challenges and the possibility of losing funding from the United Way. Over twelve years, Stacy’s leadership helped the VAC increase its operating budget by 276% and expand its operational reserves by more than 1200%. Her most significant career accomplishments were establishing and opening the VAC’s Community Kitchen and Homeless Day Shelter. The Community Kitchen serves hot meals for lunch and dinner Monday-Friday and has served more than 300,000 meals since opening in 2011. These programs led to the VAC being awarded the 2016 Council of State Community Development Agencies (COSCDA) Sterling Award for Homeless Outreach, one of only five National Awards presented by COSCDA annually. Stacy’s career path has been anything but traditional. She is currently expected to graduate from the University of West Georgia this December with a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership with a Public Service focus. Stacy credits her work ethic to her faith in Jesus Christ and her family, who have supported her throughout her career. She credits her strong leadership skills to the many individuals who believed in her and invested their time to help her grow and evolve. Stacy has been married to her greatest fan, Jeremy Long, for almost twenty-two years. They have one daughter, Emma Long, who is currently a junior at Kennesaw State University. Stacy’s greatest love outside of her family is travel and sharing her carefully cultivated itineraries with others.