United Way of Spokane County has hired Daniel Dent to lead the organization as its new president and CEO. 

Dent, 54, previously led a 32-year career with the U.S. Army before retiring and settling in Spokane last year. His last position was as the commanding general of the Washington National Guard where he led over 6,000 soldiers and oversaw 33 facilities across the Evergreen State. During his tenure, Dent oversaw a $250 million annual budget and led and trained Army organizations in the execution of overseas contingency operations and state domestic operations that included the Washington National Guard’s statewide community support response during the pandemic.  

Dent graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, as a distinguished military graduate with a degree in economics. He also earned a master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. 

The Journal met with Dent recently to discuss his second career, his challenges in this new role, and what he hopes to achieve during his time leading United Way of Spokane County. 

What led you to decide to lead a nonprofit after decades in the U.S. military?

Leading the Washington Army National Guard during the pandemic was pivotal for me. I assumed the role in November of 2019, and like all senior commanders do, I set out to create my vision and strategy for the organization. We brought everybody in for a leadership summit in January 2020 and created all this excitement for the new plan. Then three weeks later, I got a call from my boss to meet at the state’s emergency management division headquarters to talk about this patient in Washington that had this thing called coronavirus.

Four weeks later, I’m in Camp Murray, and the vice president of the country is explaining how our environment and world are going to change. The pandemic began, and I ended up learning a lot about relational leadership, what service members do, how they sacrifice time with their families and employers to do this work, and what type of leader I wanted to become. 

It was a challenging time, and I was blessed to be leading, but it was also a very complicated time with all the missions that were going on, the civil unrest, food bank support, and vaccination site support. But it helped me connect and understand the struggles of these communities and our state. It reinforced this desire I already had by then to work in the communities after my military service. I saw organizations like United Way and so many others that rose up during that time to support their community. 

What type of leader did you become during this time?

Typically, in military organizations, the leadership is very directive. But it was never really a style that I promoted. Early in the summer of 2020, I found that (military) families were struggling. I was in this blessed position as the commanding general at the top of the structure to reflect on this struggle, because I was also struggling. If I’m struggling with family and personal human struggles, what’s happening with our service members and soldiers who are down this military organization chain of command?

That led to engaging in this relational and humanistic approach to leading through this complicated time. And it worked. Soldiers started to trust that we cared about them at the top of the leadership chain. About 2 1/2 years into the pandemic, we looked back and saw that we had the highest level of retention in 15 years during what was arguably the most complicated and challenging time in the history of the Guard. It was a moment that I wish could have happened in a more powerful way early in my career. 

How has it been so far stepping into this new role? 

I’m bringing a military lens to it, but the mission of the organization is to improve the lives of all people in Spokane County and break down barriers. That’s what brings excitement—what’s happening now in the organization and what could happen. This is a completely new landscape for me. 

I served my entire career in a pretty structured job. The military has all kinds of layers of structure and redundancy for all the right reasons. Working in a civilian environment plus a nonprofit environment, it’s fair to say I’m nervously excited. This historic organization deserves a high-functioning leader, and I want to make sure that I’m doing everything I can to live up to it. 

What do you see as the biggest challenges for yourself or the organization? 

A personal challenge I have is to gain a situational understanding of our community and county. We need to have a level of connection so we can understand where the needs are, and we can apply resources at the right time and the right place. That’s something that I’m going to desperately try and increase my awareness of in the near term and then over the horizon. Our team here, just like any charitable organization across the country, is aspiring to do the same thing. 

What are your long-term goals? 

I have always approached a job, whether it was flying Black Hawk helicopters or running a company task force, with the same idea: Let me visualize the end state of where this thing could be. Let me visualize a really high goal that frames an approach to get there.

My goal here is to have United Way of Spokane County unite Spokane in this mission to improve the lives of all people by breaking down barriers to helping people get to a starting line. Because many great organizations are trying to make a difference, I would like for United Way to be recognized as an organization that unites this collective effort in Spokane County. It would be meaningful to have a convening organization that can bring together summits and conferences, and make  relationships.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.