Experience

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  Greater Chicago Food Depository

  • Chicago, Illinois, United States

  • Manager of Advocacy

    • Jun 2021 - Present
    • Chicago, Illinois, United States

    • Mobilizes advocates to advance Food Depository policy priorities, legislative agenda, and legislator relationship goals at the local, state, and federal levels.• Builds advocacy capacity of existing advocates through skills-building and trainings and by creating meaningful opportunities for engagement• Creates strategy for and leads advocacy fellowship programs for community partners and neighbors with lived experience with nutrition public benefits, including building advocacy skills and collecting input on the Food Depository’s policy and advocacy activities.• Supports policy learning by organizing webinars, legislative updates, and leads the digital advocacy strategy through action alerts, creating and maintaining web content, and leveraging social media• Develops and leads advocacy campaigns around voter registration, GOTV, and census. • Maintains strong working knowledge of Food Depository programs, operations, and policy goals to be able to accurately and strategically represent Food Depository interests with external stakeholders.• Monitors the legislative process at the local, state, and federal levels and collaborate with the policy team on the timing and focus of advocate mobilization.• Convenes a cross-functional team to support and engage the Food Depository’s Associate Board in advocacy, fundraising, awareness, and volunteer activities.• Supports the advocacy capacity of and coordinates advocacy activities with Feeding Illinois food bank partners.• Collaborates with the broader policy team to advance specific legislative goals and support the engagement of elected officials at the local, state, and federal level.• Leads the planning, promotion and execution of key advocacy events including the annual Illinois End Hunger Now Lobby Day in Springfield and the Anti-Hunger Policy Conference and Lobby Day in Washington D.C.• Assists in the management of the advocacy budget and participate in budget planning and reporting process.

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  Cradles to Crayons

  • Greater Chicago Area

  • Senior Community Engagement Associate

    • Apr 2021 - Jun 2021
    • Greater Chicago Area

    • Created new approach to diversify community stakeholders and improve volunteer recruitment strategyo Quadrupled the number of faith-based organizations, schools, park districts, libraries and other diverse community groups engaged with Cradles to Crayons since 2018o Spearheaded local advocacy efforts by creating infographics, PowerPoints, and other visuals on the topic of childhood poverty and clothing insecurityo Utilized a variety of tools to create print and social media marketing campaigns in order to disseminate information about engagement opportunities, which resulted in a 50% increase in community participation over three years• Pioneered a new position within a recently opened market to increase engagement in new communities and grow the number of in-kind donation collection drives planned throughout the yearo Tripled the number of annual collection drives from one to three during the first year in positiono Developed complex workflow strategies and directed multiple internal departments to meet timelines and achieve deliverables, resulting in a 100% increase in in-kind donations during the second year in position• Created, led, and participated in dozens of speaking engagements on the topic of clothing insecurity and childhood poverty as a social determinant of health• Researched, evaluated, and succinctly disseminated information to market leadership about local education, anti-poverty, and public health policies that could impact communities served by Cradles to Crayons• Developed and produced a new virtual engagement program titled “C2C At Home”, which lead to an increase in virtual community participation during the Coronavirus pandemic• Led the internal wellness committee and gave multiple all-staff presentations on public health topics such as the importance of vaccinations

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  Cradles to Crayons

  • Chicago, IL

  • Community Engagement Coordinator

    • Jan 2018 - Mar 2019
    • Chicago, IL

    Coordinates and executes large scale collection drives, engaging a dozen new neighborhoods and securing thousands of donations. Responsibilities include logistics, invitation lists, program planning, site-visits, transportation and logistics, and follow upSecures sponsors for large scale collection drives, including the Chicago BlackhawksIdentifies individuals and groups in various communities with interests consistent with C2C's programs utilizing C2C's network, warehouse visitors, and research methods to increase product donations from community-based resourcesCoordinates inbound product by acting as a liaison between community collection sites, volunteers who pick up at collection sites, and C2C's transportation partners for productAnalyzes product acquisition trends, identifies gaps in inventory, and designs community collection initiatives to bring in most needed productInputs, tracks, and maintains community contacts and accounts, collection drives, volunteer visits by community groups and other individuals, and other information in Salesforce databaseRecruits, schedules, and leads volunteer groups at the Giving Factory

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  AmeriCorps VISTA

  • Chicago, IL

  • Program Director, HYPE

    • Nov 2016 - Nov 2017
    • Chicago, IL

    • Developed Helping Youth on the Path to Empowerment (HYPE), a program for young adults in crisis• Conducted gap analysis research to effectively understand missed opportunities and areas of improvement• Created marketing materials for diverse community stakeholders• Acquired $15,000 for HYPE through a successful grant proposal• Built a network of 30 partnerships and referrals with non-profit and governmental organizations

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  United Way of King County

  • Greater Seattle Area

  • Intake and Benefits Specialist

    • Jan 2016 - Jun 2016
    • Greater Seattle Area

    • Prepared clients of the Free Tax Campaign with proper paperwork• Explained the rules and limitations of the tax campaign• Helped people receive social benefits such as the SNAP program and discount bus fares• Kept the flow of the shift to ensure all clients taxes were done promptly

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  University of Washington Stroum Center for Jewish Studies

  • Greater Seattle Area

  • Community Engagement Intern

    • Sep 2015 - Jun 2016
    • Greater Seattle Area

    • Planned spring fundraising event attended by hundreds of community members • Organized monthly meetings with the Jewish Studies Student Advisory Council• Tracked donor information through data entry on Microsoft Excel• Wrote blogs and various communication tools for the program

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  Washington State Department of Commerce

  • Greater Seattle Area

  • Life Science and Global Health Sector Intern

    • Feb 2014 - Jun 2014
    • Greater Seattle Area

    • Created a mapping system of local global health and life sciences organizations for use by Governor Inslee and staff• Initiated, organized and attended meetings with CEO of Washington State Global Health Alliance• Developed marketing concepts and prepared the department for a Washington State Life Science convention• Developed materials to assist local global health organizations

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  Hillel at University of Washington

  • Greater Seattle Area

  • Major Events Coordinator Intern

    • Sep 2013 - Jun 2014
    • Greater Seattle Area

    • Planned events for 200 or more people• Delegated responsibility to members of my team to maximize efficiency• Worked with other interns to cultivate their event ideas• Dedicated to making the events successful in order to better promote Hillel on the University of Washington campus

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  Gap Inc./Gap

  • Sales Associate

    • Mar 2013 - Jan 2014

    Customer Service, Organized the Store, Helped Sell Store Card