Cambridge-based nonprofit community development corporation Just-A-Start has selected Deborah Ruhe, a Cambridge resident, as the organization’s new executive director. Ruhe will be assuming her role at Just-A-Start starting July 15, following the retirement of founder and longtime executive director Gordon Gottsche, who left in December after 40 years of service.

"I am excited to be leading an organization from my hometown in Cambridge," Ruhe told Banker & Tradesman.

Ruhe had previously served as executive director of Hostelling International New England for 10 years. She also served as president of the board of directors at Victory Programs Inc., along with several other boards.

She was the director of clinical operations at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and executive director of the Fenway Community Health Center in Boston and of Health Options in New Hampshire. She provided management assistance to family planning providers in Asia and Africa as a senior advisor for Management Sciences for Health, based in Cambridge. Deborah was the president of the board of directors of Victory Programs, Inc. and has served on the boards of several non-profit organizations and community service initiatives, including Our Bodies, Ourselves, the Ryan White Care Act and the New Hampshire Family Planning Council. Deborah has an MS in Management from Antioch/New England Graduate School and attended the University of Maine and the University of New Hampshire.