Tapestry Health CEO Cheryl Zoll to step down in the spring

NORTHAMPTON — After nine years of leadership, Tapestry Health CEO Cheryl Zoll will step down in June as head of the regional agency that serves nearly 20,000 people each year.

Founded in 1973, Tapestry Health is a community health care organization that offers sexual and reproductive care, food and nutrition education, and harm reduction services.

“I think the best way to think about us is really around trying to break down stigma as a barrier,” Zoll said. “We have the cultural competency to provide care where stigma might be a barrier.”

Originally from Salem, Zoll started out as a linguistics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She taught around the Valley for a couple of years and eventually worked at the Amherst Survival Center for seven years before joining Tapestry Health in 2014.

From the start, Zoll was drawn to Tapestry’s harm reduction philosophy of “meeting people where they are at” essentially, working with people in a non-judgmental way to minimize consequences of behaviors like drug use.

During Zoll’s nine years of leadership, the organization has expanded its safe syringe program, introduced gender-affirming hormone care, broadened access to virtual services, and smoothed navigation through the COVID-19 pandemic. Tapestry’s work is based on a “model of care” that involves understanding people’s varying situations, caring for people without judgement and trusting people’s sense of what they need.

“Our model of care really centers the patient, and I feel like my style of leadership really centers the employees,” said Zoll, extending her arms outward as though she were holding the company in a stable embrace. “Providing safe and steady contexts in which people can really do the work that they know how to do and they’re passionate about, that’s what has really made that expansion possible.”

Zoll’s time at Tapestry has not been without its challenges. When she first started, the organization was fighting to expand its needle exchange program, against the will of state laws and cultural attitudes. Now, Tapestry has several needle exchange locations as well as a mobile van that provides medical care across western Massachusetts.

As may be expected, COVID-19 posed another obstacle, but the organization was able to adapt gracefully. “Tapestry is a very nimble organization,” said Zoll. Because it is accustomed to adapting to people’s needs, the agency was quick to introduce telehealth, deliver supplies to people, offer testing and vaccinations, and assume a leadership role in the area.

Reflecting on her time as CEO, Zoll said, “I feel proud of creating and sustaining an atmosphere of trust within the organization where people feel secure in their jobs… I have a very open-door policy where people feel trusted to do the work they know how to do.”

As Tapestry enters a new stage, the organization will continue to focus on lowering its threshold for access, so that it can care for as many people as possible.

“With technology and more outreach, there are going to be new ways where we’ll be able to enhance the impact that we’re having on the community… I think that will drive a lot of whatever happens in Tapestry’s next phase” said Zoll.

DRG, a nonprofit executive search and consulting firm, will conduct a search for Tapestry’s next CEO.

“I really believe that it’s important to know, as someone in leadership, when you’re ready for the next challenge,” Zoll said. “I’m really going to miss Tapestry, and it just feels like the right moment for this transition to take place.”