Moving Forward: Meet Our Interim Executive Director

Kelly Bathgate

It’s an exciting time at Gateway Mountain Center! To ensure success in both our current operations and future expansion, Gateway Mountain Center is realigning our leadership structure. Peter Mayfield, who founded Gateway in 2006, has served as our executive director with a remarkable focus on envisioning the future of Gateway and advancing youth mental health services. His unique talent for developing innovative programs and cultivating strategic partnerships has been instrumental in our growth for 18 years. Peter will continue this important work under a new title: founder and director of strategic expansion.

With Peter focusing on these expansion opportunities, we are excited to introduce our new interim executive director, Kelly Bathgate. Kelly brings a wealth of experience in the social sector and a unique perspective that we are excited to leverage during this transformative period for Gateway. Kelly previously spent 11 years in varying leadership positions with Tipping Point Community in San Francisco. She then went on to found StarrWise Solutions, a social impact consulting firm that she launched in 2022.

Kelly will focus on strengthening Gateway’s infrastructure, realigning operations to support growing programs, and improving our team cohesion and culture amidst an exciting time of change — crucial groundwork to support our ambitious plan to scale our nature-based therapeutic programs into more communities and to double the numbers of underserved youth we host at Donner Summit. Also during her tenure, Kelly will help us identify the ideal profile and skill set for a permanent executive director, a role that we plan to fill in 2025.

While Peter leads the aforementioned expansion initiatives, he will also continue to partner with Kelly and Kate Frankfurt on fundraising, to ensure that Gateway has a strong financial base to support its growth and long-term success.

We are deeply grateful to our community, funders, and partners for your unwavering support as we continue to evolve and grow. We couldn’t be more excited about the future and are confident that this new structure will enable us to expand our reach and our impact, all in service of our mission — to help youth learn, heal, and thrive!