Trisha Dust named executive director for Shorewood YMCA

A longtime Greater Joliet Area YMCA employee wanted to lead the new Shorewood facility the moment she saw the job posted.

So Trisha Dust of Plainfield applied for it and subsequently became executive director of the Shorewood YMCA on Aug. 5.

Dust will lead operations at the Galowich Family YMCA in Joliet during construction of the 50,000-square-foot Shorewood YMCA facility, which eventually will serve as Greater Joliet YMCA regional headquarters.

She is excited to be part of the Shorewood facility literally from the ground up.

“We are hoping to break ground soon,” Dust said, “and expect to be open to the community in early 2026.”

The Shorewood YMCA will feature “a wellness center, gymnasium, an eight-lane lap pool, group exercise studios, community rooms and outdoor spaces for summer camps and youth sports programs,” according to the Greater Joliet Area YMCA website.

Katy LeClair, president and CEO of the Greater Joliet Area YMCA, said Dust “is an amazing leader” and LeClair’s “favorite type of leader.”

“She really doesn’t want to be in the limelight,” LeClair said. “She wants to be behind it and support other leaders.”

Dust is passionate about engaging the community and inviting them into the YMCA, she said. Dust is flexible, dynamic, understanding of others’ needs and committed to encouraging others, LeClair said.

“We’re just honestly thrilled,” she said. “I think she’ll be an asset to the region.”

Dust has spent her entire eight-year YMCA career working in various roles in the youth development department at the C.W. Avery Family YMCA in Plainfield.

Lisa Behounek, director of the C.W. Avery Family YMCA, said she’s “super excited” for Dust’s new role and noted Dust’s “work ethic is second to none.”

“She consistently goes above and beyond,” Behounek said. “She has a huge impact on the team because she’s always willing to step up and inspire others to do great work. She’s super dependable. I wish I could clone her.”

Firsthand knowledge of YMCA benefits

Dust said she joined the C.W. Avery Family YMCA in May 2016 when she, her husband Michael, and their children Maddie and Michael moved from Tinley Park to Plainfield. A stay-at-home mom at the time, Dust said she was looking for fun activities for her children and to meet people.

Although Dust hadn’t previously belonged to a YMCA, the YMCA was known for “bringing people together,” she said, and as a member and then employee, she found that to be true.

“For me, I think of the YMCA as a friendly and community-oriented environment,” Dust said. “We bring people together in so many different ways: through the child care programs or through our senior programs that we offer or even just our workout classes. I just like how we bring everyone together.”

At the time Dust joined the YMCA, her son Michael was not quite 3 years old, she said. So Dust would drop him off at the YMCA’s Kids Corner while she worked out.

By July, Dust was helping out in the Kids Corner a couple of times a week, which quickly turned into five days a week. She was promoted to Kids Corner shift leader in January 2017 and helped teach in the preschool program – Pint-Size Pupils – that same year.

In April 2018, Dust became C.W. Avery’s first summer camp coordinator, and in October she was hired as the youth and family manager.

By 2019, Dust became before- and after-school care director at the C.W. Avery Family YMCA in Plainfield., overseeing 100 part-time employees and coordinating care for more than 700 children in kindergarten through fifth grade.

For Dust, the next logical step was serving as executive director at the Shorewood YMCA.

I think she’ll be an asset to the region.”

—  Katy LeClair, president and CEO of the Greater Joliet Area YMCA

“I’ve always been in some kind of leadership role,” Dust said. “And I knew I could take on more. … I wanted to have a higher purpose in the organization.”

Once the Galowich Family YMCA facility closes, the Greater Joliet YMCA no longer will have an actual building in Joliet, Dust said. But programming in Joliet will continue “without walls,” she said. And anyone – including Joliet residents – is welcome to join any facility.

“We have people from Coal City coming all the way [to] Plainfield,” Dust said.