Kathryn McEnery has found the perfect job.

For most of her life, McEnery’s passions have included the arts and nonprofit work. Her resume includes work at a number of museums, and she is no stranger to the stage. 

With recent training in public administration and the law, she was an ideal candidate to take the helm at Whitefish Theatre Company.

McEnery stepped into the executive director position in January, replacing Carolyn Pitman, one of the nonprofit theater group’s co-founders. The last few months have been something of a whirlwind as McEnery has learned the ins and outs of how Whitefish Theatre operates.

One thing has been consistent and comforting: the nonprofit’s friends and fans.

“I’m fortunate to come into an organization with a dedicated audience and a dedicated staff of volunteers,” she said.

McEnery’s love for the arts and nonprofit work began in Chicago, where she was raised. She worked for the Chicago Children’s Museum and took in theater and opera at every opportunity.

Those passions didn’t abate when McEnery moved to Seattle with then-husband John Zoltek. She worked for museums there before getting a job with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

When she moved to the Flathead Valley in 1997, McEnery worked for the Hockaday Museum of Art for a short time before moving to Kalispell Regional Medical Center, where she worked in customer relations and the quality department. McEnery used patient input and surveys to work with nurses and doctors to find ways to improve the hospital’s performance.

It was in that position that McEnery realized she wanted to do more not-for-profit work. To help her be more effective, she pursued a public administration degree through the University of Montana.

McEnery took one class at a time and continued to work at the hospital. “It took me forever” to finish, she said.

By the time she’d finally earned her master’s, McEnery had decided to pursue another degree, this time in law.

She never had considered law school before, but it seemed like a decision that could only make her better-equipped to work with nonprofits. Law school could teach her everything from how to resolve conflicts to the ins and outs of tax codes.

In 2007, McEnery moved to Indiana to attend law school at Valparaiso University. Even with her class load, she continued to focus her energies on the arts. She took in shows in Chicago and interned at the campus art museum.

“I was always thinking, what can I do in the arts? It’s a fun way to apply business and legal principles,” she said.

McEnery also found herself on stage during the law school’s annual music revues, which raised money for the school’s student clinic. 

Their performances included modern classics such as “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and “Dames at Sea,” which she described as “basically a room full of tap-dancing lawyers.”

McEnery’s goal was always to return to Northwest Montana, where her daughter Geneva, now a senior, wanted to graduate from high school. When she was offered a position at a plaintiff’s firm in Missoula, she took it, but McEnery spent most weekends in the Flathead skiing and visiting friends. After several months, she was offered a job with a local law firm and moved back to the valley.

But working in a law firm wasn’t what she had in mind when she went to law school. McEnery leapt at the chance to apply when she saw Whitefish Theatre Company’s ad for a new executive director.

“That does sound like exactly what I want to do,” she said.

In addition to the opportunity to use her education and put her passion to work, working for the nonprofit theater group gave McEnery a chance to be part of an organization she had long admired.

“The people in the productions, you’d never know if you came to see one of our shows that these are your neighbors or the kids down the block,” she said.

While the group is well-established in the community, McEnery has found herself facing challenges in her new position. Whitefish Theatre Company is at the cusp of a capital campaign seeking to expand and enhance the O’Shaughnessy Center.

Despite being new to the group, McEnery said she hasn’t felt overwhelmed by fundraising and planning. The board of directors had a well-thought-out plan already in place, she said.

“I was able to come in and instead of being the new director coming in and facing renovation and a capital campaign, what I saw was [the board] doesn’t do anything halfway. They don’t do anything impulsive,” she said. “They do things in response to community needs and where there is community support.”

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by email at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.