photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

The Ballard Center's home at 708 Elm St. in North Lawrence is pictured Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022.

A new leader will take the reins at the Ballard Center later this year. The nonprofit’s CEO, Becky Price, plans to retire on Aug. 1.

Price will exit after seven years in the CEO role, having led the social service center since 2016. She’ll be replaced by development director Kyle Roggenkamp, the center announced in a press release Monday morning.

Roggenkamp has been with the Ballard Center since April 2021, after 12 years of working in social services around the state. Since joining the center, he has played a key role in broadening the center’s scope for using crisis funding — over a two-year period, the center has tripled the number of households it serves with such funding through a focus on direct client services.

photo by: Contributed

Ballard Center development director Kyle Roggenkamp

In the release, Roggenkamp applauded Price’s leadership and efficacy as a community advocate and said he hoped to build on her legacy.

“The opportunity to serve our community at Ballard is a dream come true,” Roggenkamp said in the release. “I grew up on the doorsteps of places like Ballard. I personally know the impact that abuse, poverty, addiction and houselessness can have on both children and adults, and I know just how hard it is to move up the socioeconomic ladder. Using that experience to help others is my life’s purpose.”

While serving as CEO, Price tallied a number of accomplishments, according to the release. That includes building organizational capacity, stabilizing the center’s financial situation to include a rainy day fund, improving the nonprofit’s quality of services and securing funding for structural improvements to the center’s 108-year-old home in North Lawrence.

In the release, Price called it an honor to play a role in Ballard’s history of serving the community. She said a top priority since accepting her leadership position was developing strategies to make the nonprofit more sustainable, and she believes she succeeded in that mission.


”Ballard is stronger today than ever before and thriving thanks to the support of the community,” Price said in the release.