Meet the team

Pam Harger grew up in Bryan, Ohio, but she’s been a part of Steuben County since she was a little girl, visiting her family’s cottage on Ball Lake every weekend. Pam attended Bowling Green State University, where she was interested in learning about guidance and education. Then, she took her career in a different route and started working as an Attendance and Diversion Counselor. In this position, she supported 7 schools and helped the court work with truants, as well as developing programs to help kids who were in trouble.

After 10 years, she returned to working in a school as an at-risk counselor at Hamilton, earning her Master’s in School Counseling degree. She stayed with Hamilton in Guidance for 25 years and retired after working 3 years at Fremont Middle School.

Pam is a longtime SCCF volunteer, and she has been involved in a number of ways over the past 18 years. She served as a leader for Forever Improving Steuben County Together, known as FIST, the Community Foundation’s youth philanthropy group, as well as volunteering on the grants committee. Youth development has always been a passion, and Pam loves helping young people navigate their journey through life with philanthropy and connections to the community. Pam brings a good perspective to SCCF, representing the community of Hamilton as well as sharing her expertise in youth development. In her role on the board, she is excited to continue supporting area youth in their careers and throughout life.

Pam is excited to see the direction the foundation is taking to pursue community leadership. She sees the many opportunities in the future for SCCF to serve the community and strengthen our local nonprofit organizations and community networks.

In her free time, Pam is enjoys hiking, traveling, cooking, and reading. She has come full circle and now lives at Ball Lake where her family’s house used to be. One of her favorite parts about living in Steuben County is being on the lake and enjoying the sunsets. She thinks Steuben County is a great place to live because you can get to know the people around you and feel like you’re making an impact when everyone rallies around a cause.

Pam looks forward to engaging more people with philanthropy and sharing the concepts of a community foundation, breaking down words like “philanthropy” and “endowments” so people feel SCCF is accessible. With the diversity of the board’s backgrounds and expertise, Pam is optimistic that the variety of voices will help SCCF have a good future.