OXFORD—Returning to this area, the new director of the United Way of Oxford, Ohio and Vicinity plans to continue the strong leadership the organization has enjoyed and add some more services to help member agencies become more self-supporting.

It’s all part of his goal to stretch United Way dollars even farther in tight economic times.

Brian Revalee officially starts his new position in Oxford April 1, having served as executive director of AIDS Resource Group in Evansville, Ind. for nearly seven years. He has family ties here, having grown up College Corner. Revalee is also a 1998 Union County High School graduate. While in high school, he was manager of the basketball team, played freshman basketball and was a member of the academic team.

“I was kind of a nerd,” he said.

He left the area to attend the University of Evansville to study physical therapy and earned his undergraduate degree in biology and psychology. Revalee later obtained a master’s degree from the University of Southern Indiana in social work and then a second master’s from University of Evansville in public service administration.

“I fell in love with the university. It was small enough that I would not get lost. I fell in love with the community. I made a home for myself, away from home,” he said.

Now, however, is the time to return home and Revalee looks forward to living in this area once again.

“I started looking at getting back into the area after we adopted three kids two-and-a-half years ago,” he said. “I want them to grow up with a sense of family. That was a big motivating factor. I began looking before Christmas and saw the posting (for the United Way position).”

The kids are ages 9, 7 and 3 and are siblings Revalee and his partner, a native of north Muncie, Ind., had first taken the children in through foster parenting and then adopted.

Pam Collins, the immediate past president of the Oxford United Way board, was part of the selection process and is impressed with Revalee’s credentials.

“Brian Revalee comes to the United Way with a knowledge of the Oxford community and vicinity and brings with him a solid track record of administrative, public relations and fund-raising experience,” Collins said. “Our board was very impressed with his creativity and ability to connect to others and generate broad community support. It is our good fortune that at this point in his career, he wanted to make a difference in the community he calls home.”

Revalee was in Oxford several weeks ago to see the community and meet people and that helped him to see the importance of recognition in the community. His visit included a trip to the weekly Rotary Club luncheon with director Maureen Kranbuhl, who served in that position for nine years.

“People know her and a number of people know me or know my family,” he said. “It’s still scary. I’m not one to take big risks like this.”

He knows it will not be easy to follow Kranbuhl as director. In her nine years, the campaign has raised more than the year before every single year and took on a challenging $250,000 goal this past year.

“The United Way appeal is national, but the money collected stays here. It’s more like a franchise. It happens the way the community wants it to happen,” he said.

He wants to use the skills he gained at ARG to help the member agencies of the local United Way.

He said he wants to improve the grant-writing skills of the agencies so they can go out and stabilize their funding. That could benefit the agencies and the United Way because if the agencies have increased funding sources, they may not need to depend as heavily on the United Way money which would allow other agencies to receive funds.

“I want to do things like Lunch and Learn classes to talk about tax information, resource law and grant writing. I want to bring in speakers and answer questions,” he said.

The challenge will be different than in his Evansville job.

“HIV has a huge stigma. We are doing work no one else wants to do or, at least, is passionate enough to do,” Revalee said of his ARG position. “I thought I would probably do that until they carted me off to a nursing home, if it were not for family.”

He directed a staff of 11 at AIDS Resource Group, where he was the executive director for the past seven years, having worked there when the director left. He said there were early challenges — stepping up the fundraising efforts and reorganizing staff and services to match up with community needs.

They were named the top-rated HIV Care Site in the state of Indiana for three years, 2009-11.

“When I took over it was in dire straits. I had been there two years when the opportunity to be director came up. I could not have done it on my own. I really had to rely on the team,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of good things. It has a lot to do with being part of a good team.”

Revalee wants to bring that spirit of working with a good team of people to his new job at the United Way of Oxford, Ohio and Vicinity.

“That’s what challenged me,” he said. “I love Evansville. I love the job. I’m doing this just to be up here and be close to family. We have a great network of friends in Evansville but I want the kids growing up with people they know. Here, their cousins are more their ages.”