Executive director hired at The Victim Center

Courtesy Missouri State University

Tara Benson is scheduled to become executive director in May.

The Victim Center Inc. has appointed a new executive director following the exit of its longtime leader last year.

Tara Benson, a 16-year employee of Missouri State University, is scheduled to start in the top role at The Victim Center on May 13, according to a news release.

"I am really excited and honored to have been selected as the next executive director and just really excited about what the future holds for The Victim Center," Benson said in an interview this morning.

Benson will lead the nonprofit with a 2024 operating budget of $1.6 million and 22 full-time employees, said Anne Crites, The Victim Center's assistant director who has been serving as acting executive director. The nonprofit provides free-of-charge support and services to adult and child victims of violent or sexual crimes, and it offers mental health counseling, advocacy, prevention education programs and 24-hour crisis intervention.

Benson succeeds Brandi Bartel, the organization's 19-year leader who stepped down in 2023 to spend more time with family, according to past reporting.

Benson, an honoree for Springfield Business Journal's 2018 class of Most Influential Women, has served as associate director of MSU's Plaster Student Union and director of student engagement since 2013.

"It has been a great chapter at Missouri State," she said. "I've had really supportive people around me. I'm just thankful for my time that I was here."

At The Victim Center, the nonprofit's board interviewed around a dozen applicants for the executive director role, said Crites.

Benson brings experience with The Victim Center, having been involved with the nonprofit on a volunteer capacity since 2020, according to the release. She served a two-year term on its board and worked on its fundraising event committee.

"There's been a long history of the service provided," Benson said of The Victim Center.

The Victim Center took on its current name in 1997 after starting as the Rape Crisis Center in 1976, according to the nonprofit's website.

Last year, The Victim Center served 3,094 clients, according to the release.