Helen Stagg

Helen Stagg is Chief Executive Officer of Change Happens, a community based social service organization in Houston, Texas. Change Happens is one of the largest Black-founded, Black-led organizations in the Greater Gulf Coast Region of Texas. As CEO, Stagg is responsible for operational planning and management, program operations and oversight, addressing strategic organizational issues, human resources planning and management, financial planning and management, fundraising and grant writing and community relations/advocacy. Change Happens’ mission is to “Empower people to help themselves,” and to this end, the organization is making a difference to the 65,000 clients it serves annually.

Stagg’s role in leading one of Houston’s premier nonprofit organizations has resulted in exceptional growth that expanded the organization’s program to include: after school and summer enrichment programs, HIV prevention, housing and supportive services, workforce development and employment, reentry support programs, case management, enrollment in health insurance coverage for the uninsured, substance misuse prevention and treatment, mentoring, neighborhood and economic revitalization, affordable housing, community engagement and expanding services for children and families.

The agency was most recently awarded a community impact grant from the Obama Foundation, one of ten organizations in the nation to receive this honor. Under Stagg’s leadership, Change Happens revenue has increased by more than 40% during the last three years.

Stagg received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Texas A&M University, Commerce, where she was initiated into Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated as part of the Alpha Alpha Eta Omega Chapter. She also completed her graduate studies and received a Social Work master’s degree from the University of Houston, Graduate College of Social Work. After receiving her undergraduate degree, Stagg had a long career with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. She joined Change Happens and began her work in nonprofit leadership.

Stagg is a Certified Prevention Specialist and an Internationally Certified Prevention Specialist. She has presented at various national conferences hosted by the Administration for Children and Families and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Stagg is a scholar from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Arnold School for Public Health, CDC/ASPH Institute for HIV Prevention Leadership. She was also recognized by the Center for Application of Prevention Technologies from SAMHSA and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention for her work on strengthening the evaluation capacity of evidence-based interventions. She is also a frequent speaker at various community events.

Stagg serves on the board of the Texas Association of Substance Abuse Programs, the Greater Houston Healthy Marriage Coalition and the Advisory Board of the University of Houston’s Health Research Institute. She has been featured in a documentary commissioned by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Promise Story: “Empowering Community Health.” She was an honoree of the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work’s 50 for 50 honorees (2019). This recognition honors 50 GCSW alumni who “represent the vision of achieving social, racial, economic and political justice.” Stagg was recently named one of three recipients awarded the Third Ward Go Champion award for her dedication in spearheading comprehensive, resident-led and collaborative community development in Houston’s Third Ward. Stagg was also named as one of Houston Business Journal’s 2021 Most Admired CEOs. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work and Houston Community College.

She has two daughters, Nicole Stagg-Shehadeh, JD, attorney-at-law and Danielle Stagg, PhD, Houston Community College, and one granddaughter, Arianna Brielle Shehadeh.

Helen Stagg

Chief Executive Officer

Change Happens

3353 Elgin Street

Houston, Texas 77004

hstagg@changehappenstx.org