Organizations
Over the last ten years, I have focused all my efforts on building sustainable organizations from the ground up - from employees to clients. I have worked in operations, development, project/account management, managed volunteers, grants and curated events. I have learned to problem solve quickly, implement long term solutions and constantly adapt.
TEN OVER STUDIO, INC. - Practice and Project Coordinator
TEN OVER STUDIO is a multi-disciplinary design studio centered around making the world a better place. I was originally hired to develop and define the firm culture. TEN OVER became the third Certified B Corp design studio in the country and seventh in the world under my direction. The culture strategy incorporated dynamic communication and participatory management in order to strengthen the team and increase employee job satisfaction. I was then promoted to Practice and Project Coordinator. During this time in the firm, I translated and integrated our firm values into the design process as a way to ensure all new employees (doubled in size every year) were driven by the firms mission. This process was developed alongside the Director for Design and Production Manager and documented in the TEN OVER STUDIO Field Guide - a comprehensive guide to managing a projects, clients and everything in between. Responsibilities included:
Practice Management - financial oversight and planning, marketing strategy, business development for three offices
Project Management - oversight of 175+ projects, 8 project managers, project related financials including budget, schedule and invoicing
Client/Account Management - onboarding and customer facing , 50+ accounts
Resource Management - weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly staffing and projections to reach financial efficiencies for 30+ designers
Talent Management - hiring, onboarding, standards, intenship program and semi-annual internal analysis
Culture Management - Education and Mentorship program, scholarship initiative, donation strategy, health and wellness initiatives
View excerpt of Operations Portfolio here. Full portfolio upon request.
Journeyman International - Operations Director
Journeyman International (JI) is a platform connecting volunteer architects, designers, engineers and project managers with humanitarian design needs around the world. JI was a true startup. The demand for services was high but the mechanism of delivery needed to be refined in order to find sustainability. For the first year, I traveled around the country meeting with nonprofit directors (prospective clients), principals of firms (donors) and students (workforce) to determine what clients needed, donors wanted to see and our workforce was capable of producing. Rather than rely solely on grants and donations, we came up with a business model that is profitable and self sustaining. Other notable contributions to the JI model: a design toolkit for designers that focused on design empathy; a 10-week intensive summer design studio (RED Studio); facilitated international site visits for designers accompanied by professionals in the design field.
Groundbreaking work
On a site visit in Rwanda with our design team and clients. The Sunzu Community Center opened in early 2016 and has transformed the lives of the team of designers just as much as those living in Sunzu Village.
Impact Analysis
Once JI's infrastructure was established, my focus turned towards creating metrics for evaluating and monitoring our impact. Annual reports, impact studies and multimedia campaigns became crucial to telling the story of our work.
SLO Maker Academy - Interim Director
The SLO Maker Academy (SMA) nurtures, promotes, and provides education of STEAM-based technical and artistic experience to adults and children in order to develop lifelong skills to promote creativity, jobs, and entrepreneurship. In 2015, I was asked to join the Board as my classroom experience and management positions added value to the organization. After creating and launching several successful programs, I became the Interim Director. During this time we became completely financially solvent, relying entirely on revenue generated by our programs; expanded our reach to offer off-site programming; and hired full-time staff.
Art Association of Jackson Hole - Development Director
The Art Association of Jackson Hole is dedicated to encouraging a vital, creative community by providing everyone with exposure to, education in and enjoyment of a wide variety of art experiences. The first position I held at the Art Association was Volunteer Manager. I cold called people, canvassed and was the face of the Art Association for a little less than a year before being promoted to Development Associate. Working under a seasoned grant writer and fundraiser was the most valuable partnership I've had to date. It was an incredible time of learning and growth where we developed a business sponsorship program and doubled our scholarship fund. I became an advocate for the arts in our community and state, working with preschoolers to politicians. I feel my legacy at the Art Association was creating a public art initiative where we partnered with local politicians to engage the community in long range planning. It was a very simple campaign, highly effective and, more than anything, fun.