Her Story
About Lindsay
As the executive director of a small nonprofit, every single day is different for me. I'm constantly trying to figure out what is the priority for today and how can I best manage my team. But because we're such a small nonprofit, I'm also the admin, and the CPA, and the HR, so every single day looks completely different from the next. I do a lot of fundraising and I do a lot of advocacy. I would say, honestly, the growth that has happened at Connors Climb Foundation is one of my most notable achievements. It's a phenomenal organization that was started about 13 years ago when our founder lost her son to suicide, but it didn't have one secure leader at the helm, and so when I came on, my board is phenomenal and they gave me a lot of flexibility. We've been able to really grow things throughout the state by bringing that youth voice in with our youth ambassador program, but also just increasing our visibility in the state and formalizing a training program so that we can build our capacity. We have just grown exponentially in the last year and a half because I've been able to create these different programs to allow us to build capacity.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Lindsay
01What do you attribute your success to?
I don't know that I ever think of myself as successful, so I guess there's always just that striving for the next step, seeing if I can continually improve. I don't ever feel that, like, today is the day that I have hit successful. I'm definitely striving to reach that level.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Do it scared. Like, even if you are scared of doing something, everybody else in the room is, too. Do it anyway.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My industry is mostly women, and what I see over and over again is that when we go to trainings and when we hire consultants in this industry, they're often men. And we have just as much to say as men do. We often have much more experience in this industry, or pulling upon our past experience in this industry, and this is something I'm working on, but I feel strongly about, is we need to overcome that feeling of inadequacy and say, I know just as much, and my voice matters just as much. We need to let ourselves feel confident in the room. Like, we belong in the room.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Funding is a huge thing. Although our organization is not state or federally funded, funding for mental health is constantly under pressure, so we are always looking for that. The legislation for mental health is challenging. It's an industry where people have mixed emotions over the value of what we do. And so, having that conversation with people and trying to change the whole conversation around mental health, and to treat it like it's a normal problem, and it's not just some crazy person in the corner. Everybody struggles with mental health, and we need to talk about it, because you can't just hide it. There's the awareness, and then there's the overall funding portion, which all leads back to the awareness.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Empathy, having empathy and compassion for people, realizing that even though you don't understand exactly what they're going through, you can have empathy for their situation.
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