Years as a Camper: 5 years (includes CILT year)
Years as a Staff Member/Position(s) held: 5 years
JC – 2003 Motorboating Staff
JC – 2004 Motorboating Staff
SC / Assistant Head – 2005 Camp 1
SC / Assistant Head – 2006 Camp 1
Camper Services – 2007 Camp 1
Director, Asst. Personnel 2013-2016
Current Profession and Title:
Senior Development Officer, Renaissance West Community Initiative. RWCI’s mission is to promote a collaborative community-centered on quality housing, education, health, wellness and opportunity. RWCI’s vision is to break cycles of intergenerational poverty through a holistic community revitalization.
Can you provide a brief overview of your job responsibilities?
- Started our organization's first Annual Campaign/ Annual Fund; Closed out $15M capital campaign, raising $15.4M
- Developing and executing annual fundraising plan, stewardship plan, event plan, communications plan ($938K the first year; $1.3 second year; $1.7 third year)
- Leading Development Committee, Marketing Committee and Event Committee
- Producing our Annual Report
- Grant Writing, including a national grant award
- Foundation and Corporate stewardship and cultivation
- Event Management & Execution (Fundraising, Cultivating, Grand Openings)
- Volunteer Management
What career advice do you have for our Camp community?
What career advice do you have for our Camp community?
Find mentors and create a “personal board of directors” as Patton McDowell taught me. Do what makes you happy every day. Find something in which you use your strengths; your God-given talent and natural ability. You will be happier if you do. Find meaningful volunteer and community work that can be inspiring and serve as professional development. Surround yourself with people who will teach you and grow you.
What have been your greatest personal and professional accomplishments? Or what is a goal that you are currently working toward?
I’m really proud to have a career in the non-profit field, to serve others, and, now, to work in the Purpose Built Communities network, working to break cycles of intergenerational poverty. I’m proud of helping a single mother find a job when she needed it most.
I’m proud of the genuine relationships I have built in each role I have had. I’m proud to work in the incredible nonprofit field in Charlotte with amazing people in this space. When Charlotte was ranked 50th out of the 50 top cities in the U.S. for economic mobility, I’m proud of how Charlotte has responded, worked together, and for the long work we will have ahead.
Personally, I’m proud to be the person I have become… I am still growing and learning every day...I’m not perfect. I’m proud and thankful for my amazing husband.
How do the values or skills learned at Camp show up in your everyday work or personal life?
Character, what’s the right thing to do, serve others, servant leadership, management skills, leading others, public speaking, team building and how to work as a team.
What person or situation influenced you most at Camp and why did they/it impact you?
When I was a CILT, Paige Halter not only served as a role model who displayed selfless acts for others every day, but she was the first person who took the time to tell me that I had talent and character. She wrote me a letter that I still have today and will cherish always. She was the first person to give me confidence in my abilities. I was never good at sports or school, so I didn’t know what I was “good at” before that letter. Thank you, Paige!
What advice would you give your younger self?
Be proud of who you are and what you bring to this world. When you have moments when you feel different from others, don’t try to change yourself to fit them, but be confident and grateful for who you are.
Favorite Camp food:
Grilled cheese and tomato soup (I will never again challenge Liz Arnold Farris to a grilled cheese-eating contest. I think we each ate 14 of them.)
Favorite book:
Axiom by Bill Hybels
Favorite sports team:
Carolina Panthers
Favorite holiday:
Thanksgiving – lots of family traditions, which includes sailing the day after Thanksgiving
TV/Movie character you’d most like to be:
Julia Roberts on Eat, Pray, Love or maybe Kerry Washington on Scandal
Something with which you are obsessed:
Right now comfortable clothes and tennis shoes… Not dressing up and wearing heels because working from home during the pandemic has made me realize this.
What are you watching on Netflix?
Re-watching Dawson’s Creek
What is the goal on which you are working?
What’s my purpose, as well as, home improvement projects and CFRE (Certified Fundraising Executive)
Who is your hero?
Lynn Moss, Elaine Steinman, Paige Halter, Meredith Stewart, Kristin Hills Bradberry (incredible fundraising career and mentor in Charlotte) and Dionne Nelson (one of the many founders of Renaissance West, Harvard Business Grad and leading affordable housing builder in Charlotte.)