“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
2014-Present: Board President and Property Manager for 16-unit condo owner association; managing financials and accounting, repairs, community communications, etc.
Highlight: managing flood claims exceeding $200K and repairs for 10 units post-Hurricane Harvey
Highlight: established several new processes to improve homeowner experience
Highlight: successfully led Board efforts to become self-managed after experiencing significant failures with 3rd-party management firms. Success led to the formation of a consulting business to help other communities become self-managed: www.visitempower.com
Trinity Lutheran School
Gala Co-Chair
Introduced Auctioneer "Johnny Bravo" to emcee and provide auctioneer services and introduced and managed several key elements, including auction mobile bidding with QTego; auction ticket/sponsorship purchases with Acceptiva; and logistics to handle all auction activities (donations, tickets/sponsorships sold and volunteer tracking).
Held at Saint Arnold's Brewery, catered by Pappa's Bar B Q, with the help of a hard-working and dedicated gala team, this effort resulted in a significant fundraiser for important technology initiatives to improve Trinity Lutheran School.
Hamilton Middle School
PTO President
Hamilton Middle School in the Heights had a new principal, Wendy Hampton, starting in August 2013. When she heard I had a marketing background and reached out to me, I gladly accepted an opportunity to work with Ms. Hampton to develop and implement a Marketing Plan for Hamilton. I was also recruited to become the PTO President.
During my tenure, I redesigned the school Website, managed the design and production of promotional materials, offered PR consulting, and introduced a key partnership with the Rice University "Coalition on Hunger and Homeless" to foster civic engagement among Hamilton's middle school students.
As PTO President, I introduced VolunteerSpot, a PTO Newsletter, chaired the annual spring carnival fundraiser, and recruited and trained the 2014-2015 PTO Exec. Board.
While I'm proud of my accomplishments, I'm more excited that Hamilton Middle School is now communicating its story, which wasn't being told: a superior HISD school located in the Houston Heights.
I enjoyed working with Ms. Hampton, the teachers, parents, and especially the kids going through one of the most profound transitions in life: middle school!
Travis Elementary
PTA President
During my tenure, our PTA Exec. Board raised over $200,000 to fund our re-SPARK initiative--updating our school's playground through the SPARK program. Our efforts resulted in new play and exercise equipment for Travis students as well for families in the neighborhood to enjoy during non-school hours.
I introduced Kid's Chef Night--an event that has been repeated annually--where Travis elementary students create a favorite healthy dish to be sampled by judges and attendees in an effort to promote healthy eating habits.
I also chaired our Centennial Committee, managing the celebration of Travis' 100th birthday. I coordinated the entertainment and participants for a street parade through the Historic Woodland Heights, as well as coordinated honored guests: former alumni dating back to 1924 and speakers First Lady Mrs. Barbara Bush and Houston Mayor Bill White.
Travis Elementary
Auction Co-chair
With a fantastic team of Co-Chairs, the Auction of 2008 set a record in fundraising for Travis auctions: $83,000. My contributions included introducing Auctioneer "Johnny Bravo"; writing and co-producing a video for our "Raise the Paddle" initiative to outfit each classroom with a SMARTBoard (which we achieved); and volunteer coordination.
Team Mom for several seasons. Founded and managed Stude Park Adult Co-ed Softball League for several years before handing off to HNLL to help support their fall league fundraising efforts.
I became a Voter Registrar to help register younger voters and sought help from "Rock the Vote"--a non-profit voter registration organization based in L.A., who advertised on MTV featuring music's top artists.
Rock the Vote invited me to become its liaison in Houston during the presidential campaign, where I attended concerts, night club venues and other events with my voter registration cards and Rock the Vote bumper stickers and buttons.
I registered over 2,000 young voters in the span of 3 months and was later invited to the National Association of Governors conference to speak about my experience.