As a former student of New Orleans’ public schools and universities, Kheri Billy knows the difficulty many young people face when making the transition to adulthood and the workforce. This will serve the lifelong New Orleans native well in her new position as CEO of Reconcile New Orleans.
“Some people aren’t ready to go immediately into college,” Billy said. “I took a gap year because leaving New Orleans public high school wasn’t always easy back then. I worked and had a crazy life at the age the young people we serve are. I think it’s so important to have a place like Reconcile to support and provide guidance.”
Reconcile provides life-skill classes and a paid workforce training program in hospitality to 16-to-24-year-olds impacted by the criminal legal system.
Billy worked as CFO of Reconcile for five years prior to being made CEO in April. She plans to continue the work she began to change the belief system around the organization.
“When I came on board, there was this belief system that we were a restaurant that trained young people. We had to flip that and say, no, we’re a nonprofit that serves young people by training them in that restaurant.”
As CEO, Billy also plans to continue the equity-aligned salary restructuring and retirement program with matching benefits for all employees she introduced as CFO.Â
“When I joined, 50% of our employees were from hospitality backgrounds with no access to retirement,” Billy said, “and there were still tips in our cafe. We needed everybody to understand that a nonprofit doesn’t have a salary structure that involves tips, and we had to encourage people to invest in their retirement.”
She encourages the community to see the program in action by dining at Cafe Reconcile or by donating to the program.
