The turn in the road Teree Caldwell-Johnson took two years ago when she became CEO of the non-profit Oakridge Neighborhood & Neighborhood Services wasn’t so much a sharp right as it was a slight bend that kept her going more or less in the same direction.

After all, Caldwell-Johnson’s professional experience had been solely in public administration. She’d worked for the cities of San Antonio, San Diego and Ames before she came to Des Moines in 1988 to head Metro Waste Authority, a job she held until 1996 when she was named Polk County manager. She was abruptly fired without cause from that job in early 2003 in what the Polk County Board of Supervisors termed a reorganization.

After working for more than 20 years in government, heading a non-profit human services organization wasn’t exactly on Caldwell-Johnson’s mind a year later when she received a call from Becky Miles-Polka, then the president of Oakridge’s board of directors and now one of its ex-officio members. “I was really just enjoying being a wife and mom and doing some consulting – nothing taxing or demanding – and sorting out what I wanted to do when I grew up,” Caldwell-Johnson said. “I’d never really worked in a non-profit, so at first, I was taken aback.”

However, she agreed to listen to what Miles-Polka and the other board members had to say and came away convinced that she had something to offer to the organization. Established in 1967 by the Des Moines Area Council of Churches, it provides not only housing, but also programs to help residents find a way out of poverty and to steer young people away from negative influences such as delinquent behavior, substance abuse, gang activity and other forms of violence and help them achieve academic and social success. Almost 60 percent of Oakridge’s 1,014 residents are children and youths whose family income is less than $8,500 a year. Ninety-eight percent of households served are headed by a single parent, and 95 percent fall below federal poverty guidelines.

Caldwell-Johnson was recruited precisely because of her municipal experience, not in spite of it, according to Miles-Polka. With more than 1,000 residents, the Oakridge neighborhood is more populous than 71 percent of Iowa’s 948 cities. “Oakridge is like a small town, and it’s bigger than most of the communities in the state of Iowa,” Miles-Polka said. “Her county manager skill set was a great match for that.

“We needed somebody who had the kind of relational skills to work with leaders, not only in strategic, but also fund-raising areas, somebody who can meet with the president of Principal [Financial Group Inc.], but on the other hand work closely with the folks in the neighborhood.”

Caldwell-Johnson’s firsthand knowledge of the mechanics of making a “city” work is certainly a plus. But so is her innate sense of its soul, said Miles-Polka, who shares an anecdote of the Oakridge leader’s first days on the job. “She came in on a Saturday as she was going to church and saw some little boys out on the street who were tossing some trash around,” Miles-Polka said. “She stopped and had a little conversation with them, and told them if they picked the trash up and would come into her office on Monday afternoon, she would have a surprise for them.

“Two of them showed up at 10, anxious, and she told them to come back in the afternoon. She paid them all a little money, then set up a reading group once a week. I think these are the kinds of things she does all the time.”

Indeed, she’s a frequent visitor to one of Oakridge’s flagship programs, the Early Enrichment Childcare Center, a licensed and nationally accredited preschool that not only prepares children for school, but also connects their families to other services. After-school drop-in programs and other youth services are also offered at Oakridge, which is frequently thought of as a transitional housing development for some of the city’s poorest residents, but in fact is a multipronged human services agency that attempts to attack its residents’ problems at their root causes.

Capital needs are a constant concern and Oakridge is about three-fourths of the way to meeting a $1 million fund-raising goal, due in part to an anonymous donor who gave $300,000 with the stipulation that equal matching funds be raised. Caldwell-Johnson has developed a rolling capital improvements program – “just like a city,” she said – so major improvements can be planned in advance. “Frankly, for the age of the infrastructure, I was surprised there was no plan,” she said, adding that if she were a donor, she “certainly would want to have some sense and feel for return on investment.”

Miles-Polka said fundraising has increased significantly under the leadership of Caldwell-Johnson, who brought Randy McNeal on board as development officer. She’s also been able to recruit to the board people like Tim Urban, Mary Gottschalk, Dawn Taylor and Jamie Buelt, who can marshal more corporate donations to Oakridge.

“You’ve got to have a great board and great executive to make things happen,” Miles-Polka said.

Caldwell-Johnson also brings a familiarity with the issues juveniles grapple with when they don’t get the right support services. Her husband, Vernon Johnson, is vice president of PACE Juvenile Center, a program operated by Orchard Place that serves more than 2,000 young people who have gotten into trouble at home, in school or with the law. “We talk about oftentimes some of the same clients and some of the same systems we wish we could change,” she said. “I’ve learned so much from him. He has cut his teeth on this, and I’m fortunate that I get his wisdom. This is his area.”

The Oakridge Neighborhood in the past was dogged by newspaper headlines about gang violence, drug trafficking and loitering that made passers-by feel unsafe. But better news is coming out of the neighborhood, said Des Moines Police Lt. Dave Huberty, who was among the off-duty police officers who began patrolling the complex in October 1998 after a couple of homicides. “Today, I consider that area – for several years now – a much safer community than it was when in 1998. There just isn’t a comparison, it’s so vastly different.”

The added police presence has helped with overall safety, but Huberty, who meets weekly with Caldwell-Johnson, said that’s only one reason Oakridge’s reputation is improving. He calls Caldwell-Johnson “a breath of fresh air” who has assembled an administrative staff that is engaged in improving the welfare of the community and introduced new programs and approaches that help prevent crime before it occurs. She hired a security director, Ron Buchanan, and problems are identified and dealt with quickly, Huberty said.

“It’s a real full partnership, and I think she is a big part of it,” he said. “She came in at the right time. Timing is everything.”

Hagerty gets no argument from Caldwell-Johnson.

“Is this something I would have chosen?” she said. “I don’t know. But there was something in the ultimate plan for me that allowed this to happen for me at the right time.”