Witchey leaves homeless group to join Damien Center as CEO

Alan Witchey has stepped down as executive director for the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention of Greater Indianapolis to take over leadership of The Damien Center.

The Damien Center, Indiana’s oldest and largest AIDS service organization, made the announcement Monday morning.

Alan Witchey

Witchey’s appointment as president and CEO of The Damien Center is effective immediately. He replaces Tom Bartenbach, who retired at the end of 2017 after eight years with the group.

Jerry Parsons, vice president and chief compliance officer, has been serving as interim chief since Bartenbach’s departure.

Witchey has been leading CHIP since May 2015. He previously served as volunteer center director for the United Way for almost seven years; as CEO of the AIDS Service Foundation of Orange County in California for almost five years; as associate executive director for The Damien Center for six years; and as a grant writer and event planner at the Indianapolis Museum of Art for a year.

He also served as a volunteer at the Damien Center in the 1990s before taking his previous job with organization from 1997 to 2003.

“The Damien Center is about life and living with honor and dignity in ways that you could not have imagined 20 years ago,” Witchey said in written remarks. “We are at a place where we can prevent HIV and AIDS, and have people not just live a normal life, but to thrive and be happy in that life.”

Witchey’s first task will be to begin a strategic planning process to decide the direction of the organization and what improvements can be made to existing programs and services.

The Damien Center, founded in 1987, serves as a resource, provider and advocate for comprehensive HIV/AIDS care, prevention, education and related services. The not-for-profit reported just more than $6 million in revenue in 2017 and $6.1 million in expenses.