Merri Ex, a veteran nonprofit leader and fundraiser, has been named chief executive of Family Focus, a community organization that offers parenting classes and other assistance to families.

Ex has recently served in various interim positions, filling in at the helm of the Chicago Foundation for Women and a development post at LaRabida Children’s Hospital.

Before that, she worked at The Chicago Community Trust for seven years and at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. She began her career in 1974 as a bilingual community organizer of Erie Neighborhood House, rising to its executive director in 1977, according to an online biography.

Irving Harris and Bernice Weissbourd founded Family Focus 35 years ago.

mmharris@tribune.com