Kristel Avilus 

June-July 2023 Cover Woman 

First impressions of Kristel Avilus (pronounced Kris-tell) are universal. She has a kind face and a gentle voice. Her eyes are wonderfully expressive and warm. She smiles with her whole face. Her laugh lights up the room. People realize her genuine empathy creates an opportunity to show up as your authentic self. People feel compelled to lean into conversation with her. As you learn more about her, you will understand why she could do anything she sets her mind to and why she has chosen to become the Executive Director of Pace Center for Girls in Leon County. While others congratulate her for landing the position, I’m pulled toward congratulating them for hanging on to her.

For those unfamiliar with Pace Center, it is a center that provides girls and young women with opportunities for a better future through education, counseling, training, and advocacy. Pace’s team of counselors and educators provide free, year-round, middle and high school academic services, counseling, life-skills training, career preparation and more, developing individualized approaches based on each girl’s unique strengths, life experiences, and needs. In their Reach Program, therapists and counselors travel to girls to provide services in their home, school, or in the community to offers social, emotional, behavioral health, and support services for girls ages 11-17 and their families. The staff at Pace genuinely believe that all girls, regardless of their background, deserve opportunities to become strong, compassionate, and successful women. When properly supported, all girls have the power to achieve their vision of success, which leads to positive outcomes for themselves, their families, and the community.

Kristel is a living, breathing example of Pace’s exceptional service, as she seized their opportunities to grow and blossomed into her wildest dreams. One of the most important things about Kristel is that what happened to her and how she overcame are part of the story explaining how she got to this place in her life, but she is so much more than those experiences. If she had allowed herself to buy into the idea that people like her can’t succeed, her life may have turned out completely different. Thank goodness she believed otherwise. Kristel has followed what others term a nontraditional pathway to success. I love that she is unapologetic about her experiences and extraordinarily candid and authentic in a way that provides a brilliant guiding light for others who internalize the judgment of others. As someone who also had a nontraditional trajectory and wasn’t always candid about that, I admire and respect her resilience and optimism.

Kristel’s story has been highlighted several times since she was named Executive Director of Pace Leon in January. Like other people that interviewed Kristel, I initially concentrated on the significant barriers she overcame – she is…

To learn more about Kristel and her inspiring journey, you can access the full article by clicking on the magazine above.

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