Q YOU ARE THE YOUNGEST BOARD PRESIDENT TO EVER SERVE AT CANCER FAMILY CARE. WHAT ARE YOUR DUTIES?
I was 34 when I became president, but I’ve been involved with Cancer Family Care since 2011 and joined the board in 2015. CFC’s board is very much a working board, and each person brings their skillset. I have a financial background. I’ve helped with many fundraising events to raise money for the foundation. It’s about building awareness for the agency. So the role has evolved to be not just a governance function of, “Let’s make decisions of how this is going to be run,” but more towards advocacy, awareness, fundraising, and bringing your expertise to be an extension of the staff.
Q WHAT IS A DRIVING FORCE IN YOUR CAREER?
My biggest passion is making a difference every day in the lives of others. I’ve been involved in nonprofits and community service ever since high school. Because of my work with CFC, I pivoted my career into the nonprofit space as well — specifically, the mental health space. I’m the CFO of Beech Acres Parenting Center, an institution in the community that has been around for 173 years. It was founded as an orphanage, and now we do foster care and mental health in the community. Through my work with CFC, I want to help build a thriving organization that can do more great work in the community.
Q WHAT EXCITES YOU THE MOST ABOUT YOUR JOB?
What excites me the most is collaboration across community partners and community organizations. There’s a lot of opportunity and synergy, especially right now, to collaborate with different players in different sectors to create some wide-scale change. That’s exciting to be able to connect with other organizations trying to make a difference in their field and maximize the impact we can make. CFC has been around for more than 50 years, but many people think it is a cancer research organization that raises money for a cancer cure; it’s not. We provide mental health services for people dealing with cancer, which is a missing piece of treatment. People treat the symptoms and cancer but don’t treat their mental health. We’ve been doing more to raise awareness about what we do. It’s one example of connecting our resources in the city to the people who need them. Cancer is not going away. More and more people will be dealing with the disease’s mental health piece.