Current CCT role: Board Co-Chair
Volunteer since: 2015
MBA: Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University
First CCT project: NEADS Service Dogs
How did you discover CCT?
After moving to Boston about nine years ago, I was trying to make new friends and do some professional networking. I discovered a wonderful woman who went to both my undergraduate college and graduate school so I asked her to meet for coffee. She was a long-time CCT volunteer and suggested I get involved as well. It took me a couple of years before I signed up - wish I’d done it earlier.
Describe your CCT experience:
CCT adds zest to my life. I love the important work we do to help solve critical problems for our nonprofit clients. Our clients’ stories both make my heart sing and sometimes have me in tears.
The CCT teams I’ve been on come together for all the right reasons and this creates a strong bond and the motivation to give clients our best ideas. I first worked on a project for an organization that provides service dogs to people with a large variety of challenges. We met some pups in training and watched the two year old dogs graduate with their proud new owners, whom these highly trained dogs will help for the rest of their lives. The following year I was part of a team that re-branded an innovative nonprofit whose mission was to find a permanent family member for young adults aging out of the foster care system – a game changer for these kids who often end up homeless. Most recently, I was part of a team that helped a suicide prevention organization identify social media strategies to reach teens and raise awareness of Samaritans’ suicide prevention contact lines for themselves and their friends. If we did this for a corporation, it’s all in a day’s work, but in this case, we’re saving lives.
Our clients work so hard with so few resources and have achieved amazing results without us, but with our help, they may be enabled to transform their organizations to do even more good. Selfishly, I’ve made some really good friends through CCT. I can’t discount that. Now, I’m on the CCT Board and Co-Chair of the Client Development Committee. Tapping into our vibrant Boston nonprofit community makes me feel like a kid in a candy store, but the Win-Win for clients and volunteer teams starts with a really important project and an inspiring mission.
What don’t we now about you?
Over the last couple of years I’ve dramatically changed careers from corporate cog to university educator. It’s stimulating and challenging to keep 50 young adults engaged and focused for 100 minutes at a time. My goal is to generate muscle memory on how to assess a business problem and see their business through the eyes of the consumer, and then launch students into the big, wide world with confidence in their skills and ability to communicate.
