I advise nonprofits and individuals on ways to serve the public good through
strategic planning, advocacy, and communications.
My career in the nonprofit world began in a Baltimore bathroom.
Fresh out of college and mired in a tedious nine-to-five job at the lowest rung of the corporate ladder, I started volunteering as a way to rediscover a sense of meaning and purpose in my life. My first volunteer position was at a hospice for low-income adults with HIV/AIDS. Lacking both clinical and culinary skills, I found my niche in custodial duties. Twice per week I would don gloves and a surgical mask, grab a bottle of bleach, and scour the bathrooms in the hospice until they gleamed. While my contribution was modest, I took pride in the knowledge that I was providing a service for people who needed it.
One evening as I scrubbed the toilet on my knees, I was struck by the realization that I was happier than I had been all day, and more fulfilled than I ever was in my day job. I began to imagine a career in which I could actually get paid for helping people. Some time thereafter, I applied for a job at a local philanthropic foundation and left the for-profit world behind.
In the more than 15 years since that small epiphany in a hospice bathroom, I have found employment for refugees, counseled inmates in state prisons, lobbied to pass anti-poverty laws, recommended millions of dollars in grants, and launched neighborhood development programs. Every step of that journey has brought me in contact with an amazing diversity of people whose stories humble, inspire, and motivate me.
It is with them in mind that I commit myself to helping nonprofit organizations tell their own stories and plan for the future.
