The Journey Part 2

My on-going, ever winding, 27 year+ career has 3 parallel parts to it.  Besides my actual work – there are the CARA connections (which I’ve touched on earlier) and my Apra journey as well.  I served on the CARA board from 2000 through 2006 as So Cal Regional Chair, Membership Chair and finally as President. I also served as a Track Chair for 3 consecutive Apra conferences from 2002-2005 (Dallas, Toronto, San Diego). I also served on the curriculum committee for the 2009 conference in Boston and follow that up by serving on the Apra Board of Directors from 2009-2012 – all while working at COH.

Most of that was the result of simply saying “yes” when asked to serve. Through those span of years, I met, connected and engaged with so many great people. Apra allowed me to extend my network across the country and beyond.

While serving on the Apra board I had the distinct pleasure of getting to know the amazing Helen Brown and our lives would connect over and over through the years. Helen encouraged me to participate in Research Pride month and she continues to inspire me with her contributions to our profession. 

We also have another unique connection…  While at the City of Hope, I hired Mandi Matz, who was living in Phoenix, Arizona at the time. Mandi was working as a librarian and applied for a research analyst position. I interviewed her over the phone and made an offer. She was a little surprised I didn’t need to meet her in person and insisted on coming out to visit the team prior to taking the job.

Needless to say – she was a perfect fit. Mandi is one of my best hires of all time. She is the most-well-traveled person I know; having visiting every single continent. She’s extremely bright and one of those people you’d want as a “phone-a-friend” if you were ever a contestant on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.”

Mandi would eventually leave City of Hope to start her own research shop at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena and then go on to build a team at Occidental College. While at Oxy – she needed to parcel out some of the team’s research needs and I introduced her to Helen at an Apra conference.

Fast forward to today – and now Mandi works for the Helen Brown Group. Imagine that. Two great people are now on the same team.

Mandi was the first person on my team who I actually tried to help find another job while still being on my team. It wasn’t that I was trying to get rid of her. Not at all. Long ago, I adopted the philosophy that if someone on my team had an opportunity to grow and advance their careers, I would do whatever I could to help them. I wanted to be an advocate.

I knew Mandi was at that point where she needed more challenges. I knew I didn’t have a path for her at COH to advance and I let her know that if I could help her, I would.

Mandi occupied the office next to mine. She didn’t know it at the time, but there was one or two occasions, where I could hear her being interviewed over the phone. The first time I heard this, I decided, I would try to help her.

I even introduced her to Mark DeFilippis at an Apra conference when he had an opening for a researcher in South America. Yup. South America.

Ok, so where was I?

This is what happens when I try to tell my story. It’s easy to go down a rabbit hole because there are so many dot-connecting stories that can take me down any number of paths.

Back to my story…

While on the Apra board, I served with the always funny Debbie Mueller. During her reign (and yes, reign sounds appropriate) as president – Tom Hampsey and I served as her Sergeant in Arms during the Apra conference in Anaheim, making sure she arrived on time and safely at each Apra event. Tom and I laughed a lot in our roles and became friends during our time together on the Apra board. We always seek each other out at conferences to this day.

I also had the privilege of serving with Karen Stitsworth and Kelly Jean Geiser – the two of them along with Debbie represented the Minneapolis/St. Paul area well.  During my service, I also got to know Marianne Pelletier, Elizabeth Dollhopf-Brown, and others. So many great minds.

It’s where I got to know Karen Isble – who was among the first people I had ever heard talk about building an in-house analytics team when she was at the University of Michigan.  Funny, Karen is now at U.C. Irvine – where I once worked.  We “just missed” each other there. 

Apra is also where I got to know Rob Scott from M.I.T.  I would later learn he almost became my boss at one of the institutions I would work at. I won’t say which one – but I would have loved that opportunity.

Susan Faraone and I joined the board together. When we joined the board, she was at the University of Chicago. Years later, she would move on to work at the Aspen Leadership Group, where she coached me through some career decisions when I was preparing to leave UCI.

Apra also afforded me the wonderful opportunity to work with long-time colleague and friend – Michael Quevli. Michael and I not only served on the Apra board together, but also on the CARA board.  He’s also delivered my P!N screening results at City of Hope and my Target Analytics results at U.C. Irvine. 

I feel like I’ve known Michael forever. Our paths are constantly crossing. Michael is one of the most dedicated prospect development people I know and has given everything he has and more to Apra. You just can’t accurately measure the monumental impact he has had on our industry.

The Apra board experience was unique in many ways.

While it allowed me to meet so many people, I don’t feel like my personal contributions were significant in any way. I never felt like I found my groove with the board at the time and even though I love engaging with others, I always felt like I was sort of on the outside, looking in.  Being a part of a team of so many high-achievers proved difficult for me. I found it challenging to assert my voice in our meetings. I was an introvert (believe it or not) serving with a group of extroverts.

I’m certainly appreciative of the experience, but would have liked to have done more and found a way to assert myself better. Looking back, I feel as though I might have joined the board at the wrong time in my career and I feel like I might have had a bigger impact with a different group. That’s not on them; it’s on me.

As I continue to write about my journey, there are so many names and faces that keep popping up in my head.  Each has a story and it’s a little overwhelming trying to tell them all. A lot of those stories are about first impressions. Like the time I met Mark Egge and knew instantly, he was going to be a rock star in our industry. I have followed his career from a distance and we’ve kept in touch over the years. He’s another person who shares a love for baseball (he’s a Twins fan). I was elated when he joined the Apra board and I am extremely pleased to see him as our organization’s president. 

I was honored when he asked me to serve on this year’s Nomination’s Committee and I am looking forward to working with him in this capacity.

I also remember meeting Geoff Little of Vanderbilt University at an Apra conference. He had just won an award, if I’m remembering correctly (although which award escapes me) and I noted that he would be one to watch. He has built a nice career over the years, dedicating nearly 16 years to Vanderbilt while staying plugged into the music scene in Nashville.

I recently discovered a connect-the-dots moment with Geoff. More on that later.

So many of my connections and stories overlap in many ways and perhaps none are more profound than my relationship with Sandra Campero.

I first met Sandra when she was a prospect analyst at the University Of Southern California (USC). We got to know each other through CARA and when she was hired to be the Assistant Director of Prospect Research at Loyola Marymount (LMU), working with another long-time friend and colleague of mine – Aimee Fitzgerald.

Sandra would eventually become the Director at LMU when Aimee departed for Pepperdine.  It was during her time at LMU that Sandra introduced me to LinkedIn – sending me an invite and explaining the benefits of the platform.  Sandra was in fact, my first LinkedIn connection.

While Sandra was in the early stages of her career, I was working at COH and serving on the CARA board. 

Sometime in 2004, I was in the process of recruiting for a prospect analyst position at COH.  One of my candidates at the time was a woman working in New York, who was planning to move out to Los Angeles.  Her name - Sara Butchenhart and I really wanted to hire her (yet another person I interviewed over the phone before the days of Skype). Sara decided to take a job at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and work for Debra Dysart (who I worked with on the CARA board).

I was very disappointed at the time to lose out on hiring Sara. I believed I could offer more money and even better perks and benefits, but Sara opted for LACMA because she knew some people there and there was a level of comfort for her there; especially since she was moving to LA from New York.

Prospect Development is a small world. 

After learning that Sara was going to LACMA, I joked with Debra Dysart (who was the Director of Prospect Research) that once Sara settled in, I would eventually try to steal her away – knowing she would have the benefit of learning from one of the best (in Debra). 

Fast forward to 2007. Sandra was looking to hire an Assistant Director and reached out to me to see if I knew anyone.  Simultaneously, Debra was leaving LACMA to work for United States Artists, following her boss - Katharine DeShaw there. This prompted Sara to start looking as well and reached out to me to see if I had any openings.

Unfortunately, I did not – but I was able to connect her to Sandra. I encouraged Sandra to recruit her. Sara has been at LMU for more than 12 years now. Sandra would go on to work at Arizona State University (ASU) and currently works at UCI.

It was also during this time that I reached out to Sandra to ask her to teach a basic research class for CARA.  It was a role Sandra thrived in.  New researchers loved her and Sandra was on her way to becoming a driving force in our field.

Sandra would go on to serve on the CARA Board, the Apra Board and receive a CARA Service Award along the way.  She also went on to do amazing work at ASU with Karen Greene. 

I remember having a conversation with Sandra in Minneapolis at the Apra conference in 2012.  I was about to leave the board and Sandra was just joining it. Sandra; being her humble self, seemed unsure of this next step for her. I remember telling her how she had evolved into a leader in our field, how much I admired her and how I was now learning from her.  She definitely belonged on the board. Sandra has always been a high achiever and she has definitely made a large and positive impact on prospect development.

Fast forward to September, 2014 and Sandra would become my boss as the Assistant Vice Chancellor, Advancement Operations at UCI.

More on all of that a bit later.

Before I move on – Debra Dysart, Katherine DeShaw and I also share a story as well. When I was at Cedars-Sinai, Katherine reached out to me about a position at LACMA that would eventually go to Debra. In the course of our conversations, I made some suggestions to Katherine about the position and how she needed to upgrade it to attract the right candidate. She took that advice to heart and was able to recruit Debra away from UCLA.

Now, back to my time at COH.

One of the things I was always most proud of at COH was my ability to recruit talented individuals. COH allowed me to do that because I was able to offer candidates a highly competitive salary, great benefits and nice amenities such as an office for each member of my team.

While at UCI, I once heard Thomas Antunez, who was the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the time ask a group of us who had gathered to be introduced to someone he had just hired – “What is the most important thing we do?”  The answer… “We hire people.”

It’s one of those things you never forget hearing and something I have reflected on often.  At COH I hired a number of talented individuals who did great work at COH and in many cases, would go on to do great work elsewhere as well.

I’ve already mentioned Barbara Huff, Kathy Hogan and Mandi Matz.  All three, continue to work in the field today. 

I also hired Susan Laidman, who would go on to work at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for a while and Patricia Locacciato, who I recruited away from USC.

Pat came to COH with more than 14 years of experience and was a valuable contributor to our team. She was just the kind of talented individual I wanted to recruit. Pat would eventually leave to work at St. Joseph’s in Orange. She’s not currently in prospect development, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she makes her way back to the field one day.

I took every opportunity to hire very seriously and my goal was always to recruit the best possible people. I wanted COH to be the place that every prospect development professional wanted to be a part of. I viewed it as sort of a competition.

Along the way, I would hire Wendy Johnson, who had her MA in History from Central Washington University.  Wendy was hired as a Research Assistant and would go on to work at La Sierra University, Orange County Council – Boy Scouts of America, U.C. Riverside, Scripps College and currently works at Riverside Community College District.  I knew Wendy’s love of history would make her a great match as a researcher. She’s been forging a great career ever since.

She’s a Mariners baseball fan and for several years after her time at COH, she would join Cheryl and me at Angels games whenever the team from Seattle came to town.

I would also hire Monica Melgoza, but the process took years.  If my memory serves me correctly, I tried to recruit Monica three different times over the years and it wasn’t until the third time that I finally convinced her to come work at COH.

It was at COH that Monica finally found a “home” and place where she could be herself and do her best work. Monica is an extremely talented researcher, but she’s also very much an introvert – with COH.  She found a place where she could be left alone to do her work in a comfortable environment.  She would leave COH not long after me and is still working in the field. She also continues to volunteer for a number of organizations. She has always had a great heart for service.

There are also the people that I wanted to hire, but for one reason or another could not.  A little more on that to come.

Another thing I took great pride in while at COH, was doing informational interviews with individuals who were looking to transition into our field. People like Ebbins Harris, who would find her way to USC to work with Aimee Fitzgerald. She currently works at Cedars-Sinai and has carved out a nice career along the way.

I even had the honor of offering advice to a colleague’s daughter along the way. While at Cedars-Sinai, I worked with a development officer named Susan Bender. Years later, when her daughter Ally was exploring career paths, Susan asked me to talk with Ally about careers in fundraising. Ally would go on to a career in development and although she never pursued a career in prospect development, I considered it an honor to be trusted to provide what little council I was able to provide. Ally currently works at Hope and Heal Fund.

Again, as I look back at all the people I crossed paths with, it’s overwhelming (in a good way). I could never have imagined this would be my journey; especially, since my venture into prospect development was supposed to be temporary.

In my nearly 12 years at COH, the one thing I never did was hire a man. It wasn’t intentional and it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Two guys come to mind that I reached out to but neither ever applied while I was there. Jason Creque and Ryan Frank. The funny thing is both would end up at COH after I left (although at different times) and I would eventually recruit Jason to UCI (more on that later).

Through my time at COH, I also had the honor and privilege to work alongside amazing fundraisers. I worked with major gift officers, planned giving officers, development officers who worked with industry partners and auxiliary support groups and more. I also got to work with amazing professionals in marketing, stewardship, foundation relations and others. More on that to come too (I know, I know, I keep saying that).

During my tenure at COH, I reported to Amy Goldman (as I mentioned earlier), who oversaw major and planned giving, prospect development and stewardship for nearly 11 years.  Amy’s teams were then split in two during what would be my final year at COH. At that time, I began reporting to Tina Pakfar, who was brought on board to head the major gift team and mine. Amy kept the planned giving and stewardship team.

I should note at COH, I was never part of an Advancement Services team. I was always part of the major gift team. Looking back, this might have limited my growth as a development professional, but quite honestly – it’s where I always felt I fit best. As more and more prospect development shops became a part of advancement services teams across the country during that time – mine did not.

Being a part of Amy’s team was truly a blessing and a special time in my career. It’s where I learned about fundraising and fundraisers first hand. I routinely sat in on portfolio reviews with Amy. I introduced and discussed new prospects and made assignments. I was part of a truly great team and I learned so much. I consider that time to be one of the highlights of my professional career. It was definitely formative for me.

Together, we launched City of Hope’s first ever prospect management and tracking system (PMATS).  We converted to a new database (Blackbaud Enterprise CRM), we enlisted the services of Target Analytics’ predictive modeling and we raised a lot of money along the way.

I had great autonomy there and was able to institute systems and processes that made our work better. Sure, there were growing pains along the way, but we learned together and we continued were constantly evolving. 

I remember my initial conversations with Amy about implementing a prospect management system and how Amy listened, but said to me at the time that we just weren’t ready. I don’t remember the exact year, but about a year later she came back to me and said it was time.

We visited with Alma Vorst, who was at UCLA at the time and we modeled our PMATS (Prospect Management and Tracking System) after theirs. We took Alma’s advice to “keep it simple.” 

Alma has continued to serve as a resource over the years. She’s now at LMU, where she has worked with many of my former colleagues like Sandra Campero (UCI) and Bettie Woods (CSLA).

Amy always listened to me. She didn’t always allow me to implement everything I wanted to do, but chances were if I presented a strong enough case – she eventually would. 

I have a lot of great memories working with Amy, but one memory stands out more than any other, but first - a little background information….

My dad became a patient at COH sometime around 2006 when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. I remember sitting in his oncologist’s office in Orange County when we got the news. The moment I heard the news, I knew I had to take immediate action and made sure he would get treated at COH.

So, here’s the thing – I might not have ever thought of COH if I hadn’t worked there. When I reflect back on my career – I often see how my path always had a purpose. Perhaps, the main reason I ended up at COH was so that my dad and eventually my father-in-law could be treated there. I have always believed that God has had a hand in my career.

When I shared the news about my dad with Amy – she was extremely supportive.  She allowed me to go on all of his visits and be with him when he received treatments.  She gave me the freedom to do whatever I needed to do to be with him and to manage my work as I best saw fit.

She would later acknowledge that throughout that period of time, my work never suffered.

One day I was sitting in her office and I told her how overwhelming everything was to me.  As I told Amy all of this, she looked at me and said, “If you need someone to come and just sit with you during any of these appointments, I’d be happy to do that.”

Who does that?  Amy does.

I’ve never forgotten that and words cannot express the extreme gratitude I had for her offer. That’s who she is.  She cares deeply about those in her span of care.

My dad would eventually pass from his cancer in 2007.  My father-in-law would also succumb to cancer a couple years later. Both were treated at the City of Hope and both experienced the world class compassionate care COH is known for.

COH wasn’t just a place of work for me. It was and remains a very special place to me. Amy is a big part of the reason for that.

In the years following my dad’s passing, whenever I would walk the halls of the medical center; especially where chemotherapy was administered it all felt surreal. Every time, I would think back to when I walked those halls with my dad.

Today, I drive by the hospital in route to my current employer, APU and when I do - I always give a nod to the buildings and think back to my time there.

If things and life had been just a little bit different, I might very well still be there.

In June of 2011, I began reporting to Tina Pakfar. Tina is an amazing fundraiser, probably one of the most effective fundraisers I’ve ever known. She is also an extremely nice person and another person who cares deeply for others.

Unfortunately, Tina and I were not a good match. The change in management style from Amy to Tina had a big impact on me. I could not understand how Tina made decisions and that frustrated me a great deal. It made my work challenging and difficult at times. It wasn’t necessarily anyone’s fault. Again, we just weren’t a good match. It happens.

At the time, I was down two research analysts and was out to recruit two new team members.

If I told you, who interviewed for the positions – those of you in prospect development in So. Cal would instantly know their names. I was thrilled to have such high caliber professionals interview for our openings, but Tina wouldn’t let me hire them. She simply told me “they’re not what we’re looking for.” 

I was devastated. More than that, I was also frustrated. It seemed to me that Tina was looking for some kind of kind of financial analyst that would have no interest in the work we were doing and more importantly be someone we just couldn’t afford.

It pains me to share this part of my journey with you and I don’t mean any disrespect to Tina what-so-ever.  She was always gracious and kind to me, but we just didn’t see eye to eye on what a prospect development team should look like. The best explanation is that we simply weren’t a good fit for one another.  Again, it happens.

Up until this point, I never, ever sought employment elsewhere. I rejected attempts to recruit me to other organizations. I even told Amy about these efforts and she would respond with “you’re not going anywhere.” I always loved hearing that from her.

I was grateful to be at COH.  It’s where I built my career and established my reputation. It’s also where I developed so many great relationships.

My world was changed when I began reporting to Tina and I didn’t cope with it very well. It started to become clear to me that it was time to look for a new opportunity. The saying “people don’t leave organizations, they leave managers” is true. Again, it happens.

The problem I had at the time was I didn’t know where I would go.

There wasn’t (and still aren’t) a lot of Sr. Director of Prospect Development positions in the greater Los Angeles area. My challenge was that I had built a career to a certain level, where I wasn’t willing to settle and I need to be in a position that would allow me to continue my career trajectory. I had certain salary expectations and was accustomed to managing a team. Where was I going to go?

This became yet another point in my journey where my relationships would play a key role in my professional life.

City of Hope employed the services of Grenzenbach Glier and Associates (GG&A). In fact, Martin Grenzenbach was our actual consultant. In any case – one of the consultants working with us was Debbie Anglin. Debbie spent a lot of time with me and my team over several months, evaluating not only my department, but our overall development operation.  During this time, we engaged in a lot of great conversations about development and she got to know my work well. We’ve continued to stay in touch over the years (although it’s been quite a while since we last talked).

Debbie reached out to me during this challenging time in my career (not knowing my circumstances) to ask me if I knew anyone who might be interested in the Sr. Director position at UCI. As I learned about the opportunity from Debbie, I told her I might be interested. She was delighted with that news and she moved quickly to make sure UCI reached out to me.

I was about to be recruited by UCI with Debbie’s full endorsement.

Again, in my nearly 12 years at COH, I hadn’t interviewed or applied for another position anywhere else. I hadn’t even updated my resume until this opportunity presented itself. 

I made contact with Cristy Cates who was the Sr. Executive Director of Human Resources for University Advancement at UCI at the time and the process began. Cristy currently works at Cal-Tech, where our paths would cross again a few years later.

I was a bit nervous at first. After all, it’s hard to leave an organization that had been such a big part of both my professional and personal life. It was a huge step and I had lots of questions. So, I did what any researcher would do, and I began to investigate.

The Vice Chancellor, who I would be reporting to was Gregory Leet. Gregory had joined UCI after serving as a consultant for GG&A. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of Development at ASU. The same ASU where Sandra Campero would work alongside Karen Greene under Gregory’s leadership. Sandra and Karen (who was working for GG&A at the time) would be my sounding boards and answer questions I had about Gregory.

Through that process, I became comfortable with the idea of exploring the opportunity. The scope of work and responsibilities aligned with my experience. The opportunity was compelling on multiple levels. It seemed like a good fit at the time and an appropriate next step in my career.

As an added bonus – UCI was located much closer to my mom than COH was and she was in need of more help from me as she was getting older. The idea of working closer to my mom was the extra incentive I needed to apply.

One specific thing I remember about my interview with Gregory was asking him why he was hiring this position first instead of the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Advancement Services position which was also posted.

I don’t remember his specific answer (it was general in nature), but I remember thinking about it a lot. This would be key for me down the road.

We also talked about baseball. Yes, baseball. We talked about the book and movie “Moneyball” and how the use of data and analytics as predictors related to what we were doing in development. Gregory happened to be a Boston Red Sox fan and agreed with the parallels.

I got the job.

Although I was excited for the opportunity, leaving City of Hope would not be easy for me.  I was leaving behind nearly 12 years of work and more importantly relationships that I valued and continue to value to this day.