As COO (and interim CEO) I currently lead and direct the organization’s ongoing activities to promote effective, smooth and efficient day-to‐day operations. This includes working with the staff and the Board to identify opportunities for process improvement and future growth.Within my time in this role, I have been able to diversify the revenue portfolio, ensuring we’re no longer solely dependent on our annual conference (something that’s particularly relevant amid the pandemic).In addition to increasing membership dues collections nearly 300%, I have cultivated relationships with industry partners, local business communities, and government officials across the US on behalf of the organization’s mission.

I joined Airport Minority Advisory Council after conducting a very targeted job search, ensuring I would work with another organization with a mission I could wholeheartedly support. When I first came on board, I was responsible for managing the membership program. At the time, the department was not operating optimally: dues were not being collected regularly, there was no database, event registration was chaotic, and there were minimal processes and procedures in place. Therefore, my initial goal was to assess the organization needs to see how they could be made to be more efficient.As a result, we implemented a new database, cut some extraneous office expenses, and focused on our membership engagement. I worked a lot with our team to motivate and align them behind the mission and to help them understand that we’re all ambassadors for the organization.After developing membership recruitment and retention strategies and identifying growth opportunities, we increased our annual membership dues revenue and retention. These efforts were coordinated through cross-association working groups made up of membership committee members, board, staff, and volunteers.

I was proud to land a role in which I was able to give back to the community I grew up in, a county which had traditionally lacked access to quality healthcare in many parts of the county. In part due to my efforts, we ended up raising money for a mobile health unit to go out into underserved areas, and we built on a new surgical wing to the local hospital.Before I (and one other person) came on board, the foundation was run by volunteers and had been mostly dormant for the previous year. The mindset at the time was about holding events, rather than being focused on raising funds.My colleague and I took a hard look at the expenses for the gala, the largest fundraiser of the year. While maintaining quality standards, we were able to cut expenses and the event returns steadily increased thanks to the decreasing expenses, and increasing attendance / visibility.

As the Associate Manager of Development, I created strategies to effectively plan, market, and execute meetings and fundraising/recognition events, including the annual gala.I recruited high-level sponsors and attendees for events. Conducted site visits for event hosting, coordinated logistical event matters, and negotiated vendor contracts. Additionally, I yet again managed the development, implementation, and evaluation of the organization’s database (iMIS). However, this time I also developed “data entry procedures” and created a training manual for overall processes.The organization was hit pretty hard during the Great Recession, and as the result of a subsequent reorganization, I was laid off. However, I found my footing with Doctors Community Hospital.

While serving as the Data Management Coordinator, I assisted in the development, implementation, and evaluation of the database management system (something I would do again in my next role).Additionally, I fulfilled internal/external data requests and coordinated all fund development mailings and donor acknowledgements.Because of my performance and eagerness to learn more, I was promoted one more time within this organization.

As the Meetings Assistant / Registrar I recruited service vendors for our events, generated conference registration and statistical reports using Crystal, and supervised/trained temps.However, I also got my first taste of taking on large-scale event responsibility when our planner was out of the office for an extended period. I stepped up to handle the logistics of our conference, an event that saw 2K to 2.5K attendees.My thirst for more led to yet another promotion.

This was my first experience within the nonprofit world. After joining this organization and seeing the passion other employees had for the mission, I became passionate as well. Helping people to “die with dignity” is definitely a worthy cause, and one I believe in.Within my first role here, my responsibilities were pretty straightforward in that I maintained membership records and provided phone coverage. However, my eagerness to learn and do more was quickly recognized and I was promoted.