SDSU Alumnus Dedicates His Life to the Service of Others

"My life is dedicated to service and continuously learning to enhance my life and all those around me."

-Tim Ney ('14 EMBA) Executive Director of San Diego Armed Services YMCA

If you asked the executive director of the San Diego Armed Services YMCA, Tim Ney, why he has such a passion for serving the public, he’d tell you it’s because he’s walked in the shoes of many of those he’s served. “I was struggling financially and would pretend that I wasn’t hungry so my son would finish his full meal. I remember having $27 in my bank account and ¾ of a tank of gas with no foreseeable income in the future, but I was too ashamed to call my friends for support,” said Ney. “I am grateful for the experience as it made me extremely aware about the challenges that many people face in life. It has provided me great insight and compassion for everyone around me.” 

Ney served in the U.S. Marine Corps for over eight years.

Difficult Road Ahead

Ney, who earned his Executive MBA from the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University in 2014, has led a life that is deeply rooted in service. He served his country in the U.S. Marine Corps for over eight years and he earned college credit before being honorably discharged from the military in 1999 as a sergeant. Soon after, he enrolled at Chapman University to earn his bachelor’s degree but found the road to completing his education was more difficult than he first imagined. “Education did not come easy for me and I struggled as a child with a divorce in the family, the death of a parent and many challenges at school,” said Ney, who is a San Diego native. “After getting out of the Marine Corps, I found myself as a single father with full custody of my son. I was living paycheck-to-paycheck, but I found the support I needed at Chapman University to finish my Bachelor of Arts degree in organizational leadership.” 

Things improved for Ney following his graduation from Chapman. He became a real estate agent for Prudential California Realty (now Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties) in San Diego, California in 2002 and found the real estate industry was to his liking. 

In 2007, Ney’s life took several significant pivots. In March, he changed jobs to become an agent at Keller Williams Realty Carmel Valley/Del Mar. During this time, he learned that the daughter of a fellow agent had become seriously ill and needed resources to cover medical expenses. “I decided to pitch a fundraising Casino Night that raised over $17,000 and I ran the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in June 2007 for the Team in Training,” he said. “I discovered that my life was never about real estate transactions, but it was a life of service. My life is dedicated to serving others.” 

Ney sits in front of food boxes awaiting distribution to military families.

Starting His Life of Service

It was also in 2007 that a friend told Ney about an open operations position at North County Community Services, which he applied for. During the interview, he found out there was also an opening for a fundraiser, at which point Ney immediately shifted gears, saying, “that was the role for me.” He was ultimately offered and accepted the role of directory of community relations in November of the same year while simultaneously maintaining his role as an agent with Keller Williams. 

After becoming a licensed real estate broker in 2010, Ney opened his own agency, KAYA Realty in January. Six months later, he left North County Community Services to become the chief operations officer for Feeding San Diego (part of the Feeding America organization) and he ran his own company and worked at Feeding San Diego simultaneously. 

While pursuing two career paths kept him extremely busy, Ney’s life was about to become even busier. In order to realize his full potential, Ney was considering earning an MBA and he’d looked into a number of universities in Southern California to determine the best fit. “Cost was a factor, but my main concern was the overall outcome of the program,” he said. “My driving fear was having three letters — MBA — on my business card, but not knowing the answer to complex problems.” 

Ney’s search for the right university led him to SDSU finance professor, Nik Varaiya, who gave a 45-minute presentation about the Executive MBA program at the Fowler College of Business. “San Diego State was the only program that provided this level of insight,” said Ney. “I was confident that SDSU was the right choice for me and felt truly inspired every step of the way.” 

The Balancing Act

During his enrollment in the nearly 2-year Executive MBA program, Ney had to make adjustments in both his personal and professional life. His balancing act required him to rely on this family and others within his workspaces for support, but a few months before graduation, he also made the life-changing decision to leave Feeding San Diego and the real estate industry (though he said he may return to real estate upon retirement) to focus full-time on community service. In January 2014, he took his current position as the executive director of the Armed Services YMCA San Diego, where he works to support active-duty junior enlisted service members and their families.

One of the most critical elements to Ney’s success is to provide leadership and support to his team. After earning his Executive MBA in the spring of 2014, Ney said that the lessons he’s learned at SDSU have provided him with the skills needed to become a more effective leader. “I am happy to say that I have utilized every aspect of the Executive MBA program throughout my career,” he said. “I have been able to utilize all of the tools and resources to enhance every aspect of the operation, but this was accomplished by teaching those skills to an amazing team.” 

"We are one team with one goal: To make a meaningful difference in the lives of our military families." 

-Tim Ney ('14 EMBA) Executive Director of San Diego Armed Services YMCA

Service to Others Now More Important Than Ever

Ney’s leadership skills became more important than ever during the COVID-19 lockdown when there was a greatly increased need among military families for food resources. Ney said that prior to the pandemic, the Armed Services YMCA’s Neighborhood Food Exchange was similar to a farmer’s market environment that had activities for kids and served 420 families on a monthly basis. Once the pandemic began, the organization evolved their food distribution program from the farmer’s market setting to where they were preparing food boxes for 1600 families — a 400% increase in military families needing food assistance. 

While the need for food assistance has grown exponentially for military families, Ney has a much more ambitious objective in mind. “Our goal is not to grow or increase our food distribution, but to identify the root cause and solve the key issues that create the demand,” he said. “Our focus is to provide educational resources, cost-effective childcare, financial literacy, cooking classes and employment resources for military families either through our organization or through natural partners.”

While Ney says he draws inspiration from Mother Teresa and Dr. Martin Luther King as two of his heroes, he indicated that his true heroes “are those in the community who, when challenged, step up to improve their lives and in doing, improve our society. I believe we can do far better as a society to support our fellow Americans.”