PORT ANGELES — Cheryl Baumann, director of Clallam County Pro Bono Lawyers, has been named executive director of United Way of Clallam County starting next month.
She will replace Patty Hannah, who is retiring from the post.
“I don’t look at it as following in Patty Hannah’s footsteps — which are quite large,” said Baumann on Wednesday from her office at Pro Bono Lawyers, which she will vacate after 15 years.
“You don’t replace someone like her. You try to emulate her.”
Baumann says she is ready for the challenge of leading the Clallam United Way, which in 2004 distributed more than $800,000 to agencies and nonprofit groups in Clallam County.
Baumann has been known for her role with Pro Bono Lawyers, which provides and arranges for free legal advice to a variety of people who need it.
She said a successor at Pro Bono Lawyers has yet to be named, although she isn’t worried about the future of the program she helped build into a nonprofit group.