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Before Gabrielle “Gabe” Madison became CEO of Metrocrest Services, she showed up at the nonprofit’s resale store as a volunteer and kept quiet about why she was there.
“I said, ‘Hey, let me volunteer myself so I can see what this looks like,’” Madison said.
She was already interviewing for the role, but Madison wanted to see Metrocrest Services the way neighbors, shoppers and volunteers saw it. By the end of the shift, she said she had mistaken several volunteers for employees because they knew the work so well.
Some, she later learned, were volunteering 20 to 30 hours a week.
“I truly think that’s the secret sauce to Metrocrest Services,” Madison said. “It’s the volunteers. It’s the people who are committed to ensuring that their neighbors are helped and doing it through this agency.”
Madison joined Metrocrest Services in November as part of a planned leadership transition, bringing more than two decades of corporate and nonprofit leadership experience to the Carrollton-based nonprofit. She succeeded longtime CEO Tracy Eubanks, who retired after about 13 years leading the organization.
Madison leads Metrocrest at a time when the organization is trying to help more neighbors move from emergency assistance into long-term stability while economic pressures affect both clients and donors.
Madison’s connection to Metrocrest began years before she applied for the job. She spent 22 years in the corporate sector, including 11 years at Thomson Reuters, where she led community engagement efforts for Texas and Michigan. A Thomson Reuters employee involved with Metrocrest encouraged her to take a closer look, leading to a partnership with Eubanks and programs such as Sack Summer Hunger.
Madison still laughs about the year her team signed up to provide popcorn, Cheez-Its and other items, sending her and her young children from Costco to Costco trying to find enough supplies.
“I have a little bit of trauma from Sack Summer Hunger,” Madison said. “I think my kids haven’t eaten Cheez-Its since.”
The work helped shape how Madison viewed food and nutrition, not only as emergency assistance, but as part of broader conditions that affect whether people can stabilize their lives.
Madison later served as president and CEO of Bonton Farms, a South Dallas nonprofit focused on addressing inequity through food access, jobs, housing and community development.
For Eubanks, Madison matched what Metrocrest needed in its next leader. He said the board wanted someone with nonprofit CEO experience, business experience, Dallas philanthropic connections, energy and a connection to the Metrocrest community.
“That was a dream list,” Eubanks said. “We found it in Gabe.”
Lauren Turner, Metrocrest Services’ board chair, said Madison stood out quickly during the search process. Turner had scheduled about an hour for their first interview. The conversation lasted about three.
Turner said Madison brought the mix of heart and operational discipline Metrocrest needs as it moves into its next chapter.
“She is a joyful person, and you can just feel the passion for the job,” Turner said. “But she is a performer. She has high expectations. She holds people accountable. She runs fast.”
In Madison, Turner said the board saw someone who could preserve Metrocrest’s neighbor-first culture while building the systems needed to serve more people more consistently.
Madison describes herself as a servant leader whose job is to remove barriers for staff members serving neighbors. Her goal now is not to change Metrocrest’s mission, but to strengthen the path from immediate assistance to lasting stability.
Metrocrest Services sees almost 30,000 people each year, Madison said. Over the next several years, she wants the organization to help more of those neighbors move toward self-sufficiency by connecting them not only to food, rent assistance and senior services, but also to housing support, health care resources, education, workforce development and financial education.
For Madison, the goal is not only helping people get through one crisis. It is helping them reach a place where they do not need social services in the same way again and may one day be able to help someone else.
The work is personal for Madison. She said she is motivated less by a traditional idea of passion and more by what she cannot accept: people being limited by circumstances they did not choose.
“What really got my blood pressure high was seeing inequities happen for people who had no control over where they were born, what family they were born into, what economic situation they were born into or what crisis changed their lives forever,” Madison said.
Madison said that work is becoming more urgent as many neighbors face uncertainty. Job concerns, benefit changes, gas prices and inflation affect the people Metrocrest serves. Those pressures also affect donors, some of whom are reconsidering how much they can give.
For Becky Miller, a longtime Metrocrest volunteer and former Carrollton mayor, Madison’s strength begins with how she treats people.
“She is just caring and always happy,” Miller said. “People are drawn to her because she is so kind to everyone.”
For Madison, the next chapter depends on preserving what already makes Metrocrest trusted while building a clearer path for neighbors who need more than short-term help.
“I am truly sold on continuing to fight the good fight,” Madison said, “and make sure that people have the access that they need.”
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