GREATER JOLIET AREA YMCA

The Greater Joliet Area YMCA has announced the hiring of Trisha Dust as the Executive Director for the new Shorewood YMCA. Dust will assume her new role on August 5.

A seasoned Y professional, Dust has spent the last eight years working in the youth development department at the C.W. Avery Family YMCA in Plainfield. In her new role, Dust will lead programming, community engagement, and operational efforts at the new Shorewood YMCA. Construction of the new 60,000-square-foot YMCA facility, which will be built in partnership with the Village of Shorewood, will begin later this year and is expected to open to the community in 2026. While the new Shorewood YMCA is under construction, Dust will lead operations at the Galowich Family YMCA in Joliet.

“We are very excited to support Trisha as she steps into this new leadership role for our YMCA,” said Greater Joliet Area YMCA President and CEO Katy Leclair. “We have been impressed with Trisha’s high level of professionalism, dedication to our mission, and proven success in leading one of our organization’s largest youth development programs. I am confident that she is the right person to help us advance our mission in the Shorewood community as we prepare to welcome the community to our new state-of-the-art facility in 2026,” added Leclair.

Since 2019, Dust has served as the Before and After School Care Director at the C.W. Avery Family YMCA in Plainfield. In this role, she has been responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Y’s Before and After School Kid Zone program in Plainfield School District 202, which is offered onsite at 18 elementary schools. As the program director, Dust oversees a team of 100 part-time employees and coordinates care for more than 700 children in grades K-5.

During her tenure at the Y, Dust was instrumental in ensuring care was available for school-age children during the COVID pandemic by helping to lead the Y’s Kid Zone PLUS program, which provided all-day care for students participating in remote learning activities during the 2020-2021 school year. Dust also played a key role in supporting the expansion of the Y’s child care programs into the Valley View School District. A passionate advocate of the Y’s mission, she also works diligently to connect local families with the Y’s scholarship program, which helps to ensure that no one is turned away due to the inability to pay.

Dust earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of St. Francis. She resides in Plainfield with her family.