Her Story
About Clara
I've always really known that I wanted to be in service, even though I never really knew what positions I wanted to be in. I worked for Senator Amy Klobuchar for a little over 17 years, and for the majority of that, I headed up her constituent services - it's kind of like the social services arm of a politician's office, or a congressional office. I really built that program up and was part of heading up her reputation as a senator who gets things done. I started when it was the Bush administration and ended in the second term, so I saw a lot of different things. Now I'm the executive director of a small nonprofit running a 24-hour domestic violence shelter. I'm in charge of a $1.3 million budget - sounds like a lot, but in the nonprofit world, it's really small. We've got about 13 full-time staff and then 5 on-call relief staff. I'm in charge of all of the operations and the budget, but what I view as my biggest responsibility is taking care of the staff so that they can do the work. That means getting our story out there so that we can achieve our fundraising goals and making sure that we are able to afford staffing capacities that are safe. Eventually, I'd like to grow our budget enough so that people are paid fairly. This nonprofit is really special, and it felt like I was going home, serving women in my community who are survivors of domestic violence.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Clara
01What do you attribute your success to?
When I first started out in my career, I didn't really know what was possible for me, but I had a couple of mentors and sponsors that encouraged me to view myself in a different way. I think a lot about the stories that we tell ourselves, because of what society tells us. So I think having those people in my life that saw something in me that I couldn't see in myself and really pushed me to go outside of my comfort zone, little by little, has been really impactful for me and my journey. One of those mentors is Gia Vitale, who is the VP for Collaboration AI now, but early in my career, she just really encouraged me and continues to support my career.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Right now, the biggest challenges are funding constraints, especially for direct service nonprofits. Just with the current political climate and the changes in priorities, especially for domestic violence, it's just not something that people seem to want to fund, even though it's an essential service, in my mind. I see a lot of opportunities, especially for my nonprofit, in really being strategic about partnerships. For example, we work with another volunteer-run nonprofit who provides us with homes for transitional housing purposes - it's a group of Pakistani doctors who pulled together, and it's really cool. I think in the nonprofit field, opportunities are there as long as we're willing to work as partners and willing to let go of the scarcity mindset, because funding is so competitive. We don't need to knock each other down. We really just need to band together and figure things out together, and those connections will help us through.
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