Q: How do you see your leadership in our community changing in the next 5 years?

As the founding president of the KLCC Public Radio Foundation, it’s been my honor to create and build this new resource. My focus has shifted from creating to recruiting. I’ve spent the last year and plan to spend the next two years recruiting and building future board members and leaders. Sometimes we lead by doing the work ourselves but I’m learning to lead in ways that support and develop other leaders so that the scale of what we can accomplish dramatically increases.

Q: What motivates and inspires you?

I’m motivated by results and the processes that create results. People can accomplish spectacular things – we can learn, we can change, we can grow, we can solve massive problems. Whether I’m creating and delivering training experiences that help people succeed at work or I’m partnering with other volunteers to support KLCC – it’s the changes that we make, the money that we raise, and the lives made better that motivates and inspires me.

Q: What advice do you have for those people out there who want to step up and help lead our community?

Go for it! The advice I have for people who want to step up and lead is to go for it. I started volunteering as a little kid when I was in Camp Fire. Anyone at any age can make a difference. You don’t need to have a plan, you don’t need to have tons of free time, you just have to reach out and start helping. Find a cause you care about or people you enjoy spending time with and see how much you can accomplish with 1 or 2 hours of help.

If you are already a volunteer and you want to step up to a leadership role I recommend that you practice building teams, listening, and project management. All of this can (and often will be) learned on the job but any practice ahead of time will give you a leg up.

Please involve your kids or the young people in your life when you volunteer. I learned the importance of volunteering when I was very young. My parents brought us with them to knock on doors for candidates, to pick up trash with Rotary, to help with food drives and to bake brownies for the Pisgah mushroom show. Get kids involved early so they can learn how easy it is to make a difference. Civil rights exist because we honor our civic responsibilities. Two primary civic responsibilities we have are to our neighbors and our community. We must do this work together and volunteering is a great way to support our community.