February 23, 2006 | Read Time: 1 minute
PRESS CLIPPINGS
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Marsha J. (Marty) Evans “had to face the fury of the American public,” leading to her ouster as CEO of the American Red Cross, says Pink magazine (February/March).
Ms. Evans succeeded Bernadine Healy as head of the American Red Cross in August 2002, following a public-relations debacle stemming from the group’s use of funds earmarked for relief after September 11, 2001. According to the magazine, Ms. Evans “immediately made Americans feel comfortable [about] donating again,” including corporate donors who made large gifts to the Red Cross soon after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast.
The article says that as the chorus of questions regarding the organization’s handling of hurricane-relief operations grew, however, “somebody had to take the fall, though Evans and the Red Cross have denied this is why she was forced out.”
The magazine says that “it remains to be seen” how Ms. Evans will “deal with this latest challenge.” While she “admits she’s interested in politics,” it’s too early to say if Ms. Evans will enter that arena, as did Elizabeth Dole, the Republican Senator from North Carolina who headed the Red Cross from 1991 to 1999.
The magazine’s profile of Ms. Evans also highlights aspects of her career before her time at the Red Cross, including her 29-year stint in the U.S. Navy and her 1997 appointment as national executive director of Girl Scouts of the USA, where she worked “to convince people that Girl Scouts was about more than just cookies and camping.”
