Kristine Smith

I would say that it's interesting because the nonprofit space is heavily female because we are able to multitask, manage many things at one time, and bring empathy to the table. But the advice I would give is to make sure that you're sitting at the table, and that you don't have to ask for that space. You bring your intelligence and your work ethic and your vision, and you need to believe in that, and that's why you're sitting at that table. I think sometimes people look at you like, how could that work, or that doesn't make sense? And don't back down, you know, stay with that, and stay at the table, and demand that space and make people hear you. If what you're thinking is valid, you are in that space doing that work, you have the knowledge to be heard. I think sometimes as leaders, we sometimes take a seat in the back, and we don't need to do that. It's not about female or male or anything else, you're there in the room for a reason, you deserve the space at the table, and I think that's important. Sometimes people forget that. You should be there just like everybody else.

I am very interested in advocacy and interested in bringing further attention to the need for housing at the legislative level, so continuing to grow my interest in that side, for sure. One of my most notable achievements has been the Starter Home Project, a project that I worked with and collaborated with various companies and interest groups to put together a new model for housing, affordable housing, that kind of disrupts the traditional appraisal process of us selling a house at fair market value. We created a model that allows you to purchase a house at cost versus fair market value, and equity then is built into a deed restriction that goes along with that house. I think just coming up with that model and actually seeing it all the way through has been very rewarding. It addresses different ways to do something that people typically just have always done one way for, you know, rather than really looking at how else could we do this, how could we solve this puzzle.

I start with humor - it just changes the dynamic for people if there's a challenge, and if you come at it from a different angle, there's a lot more room to agree. I think in a world that is so stressed, we are all human, and if we can each come to the table and give each other the opportunity to be heard and to lighten things a little bit, there's somewhere in the middle you'll find that resolution. In the nonprofit, especially in nonprofits, we're oftentimes working with vulnerable populations, and every person in the space of where we serve has a different need. It's unique to them. They deserve to be heard. Sometimes it can feel very heavy, you know, as a leader serving populations, but taking a deep breath and just listening and letting that person or that group be heard, and then coming back at it without such a fast reaction - that's why I say lead with humor. You can really reset the tone.