New Open Doors executive director hits the ground running

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - Jennifer Pettorini hopes to continue the work of Open Doors through her new role as executive director.

Pettorini comes from a background in healthcare after she worked at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center. Now, she said she can use her background working with people to her advantage for this and she’s excited to do it.

“I love helping people. This position allows me to have that face-to-face, hands-on, direct impact of our people of our community every single day,” Pettorini said. “Whether it be a conversation or even a smile across the room, and that really helps me sleep well at night.”

She started the job early October, after the previous executive director announced he was leaving. She said one of her biggest goals is to keep rolling with the momentum Open Doors has had, and continue growing the services offered.

“We would like to develop our program. The people that I am coming after have done a fantastic job,” Pettorini said. “I hope to fill their shoes in a very successful way, but I also like to grow and expand what we do here. I’d like to develop more programs. We are surrounded by some very amazing community partners here, but I’d like to expand those offerings.”

She said the people are her motivation to continue doing the work she’s doing. She said both her staff and the people they serve are some of the best she’s interacted with in her career.

“My favorite part currently is meeting our guests, having conversations with them, smiling, learning about them,” She said.