Bill Zazynski takes charge as the new CEO of Lebanon Valley YMCA

Bill Zazynski is the Lebanon Valley YMCA’s new CEO, replacing the retired Phil Tipton.

He brings over 30 years of YMCA experience across multiple states and positions. Zazynski said he started in 1991, after graduate school, as a youth sports director and camp counselor at the YMCA of Greater Buffalo. He has also worked at YMCAs in Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Zazynski’s past positions have included chief operating officer, senior vice president of association services, and district vice president.

He said he ended up working at a Y in New York state after an internship with the Hartford Whalers hockey team, now the Carolina Hurricanes. He was thinking he’d use his sports management degree to work with a professional hockey team or become a sports agent, but ended up at the YMCA because he hadn’t found a job.

“I’m [of] strong faith,” Zazynski said. “I think that sometimes your divine intervention sends you to where you need to be.”

He said he intended to work on the fitness floor, and then the Greater Buffalo leadership saw his resume and offered him more responsibility.

“It just seemed to find me a little bit more and just was a perfect fit for doing mission work, engaging with kids, and walking away each day knowing that you made a difference somehow, some way,” Zazynski said.

He said he’s taking over a high-quality facility with experienced tenured staff who can help continue forming connections with community stakeholders and local government. His goal is to continue the YMCA’s older adult health care, grow childcare and preschool programs, and expand Camp Rocky Creek’s summer and year-round experiences for the youth.

“The people of Lebanon should be very proud of the YMCA they have,” Zazynski said. “It’s a beautiful facility, but the true mission work that the Y has accomplished, it really puts it in that top percentile with what other YMCAs do within their community. I’m not coming into a broken YMCA Association — I’m coming into a very vibrant, dynamic YMCA.”

The Lebanon Valley YMCA started in 1898 with a small group of men gathered with the goal of forming a community. The organization focuses on the physical, mental, and spiritual enhancement of all people, according to the website.