Her Story
About Tiffany
My role in community advocacy all started with having the lived-in experience of going through homelessness. During that period of transition, I was able to see the systems that were set up for people going through transitional periods in their life, from the barriers to all types of things. Some people make it out and succeed, and some people still stay stagnant. A lot of those times when I was going through that, I just felt stuck, and I wanted to get out of that situation, especially dealing with being a mother of three, with two of my children also facing developmental challenges as far as having autism. Going through all those transitional periods of time made me think about how to work through the systems. That's when I curated my own systems of navigating and getting from surviving to thriving. After building up on those skills, meeting who I've met, networking, and getting through those systems, after getting out of my transition, which was about a good period of 2 years, I remained stable and decided that I wanted to really hone in on those skills that I had managed when I was in transition and become more of an advocate for others that were facing similar transitions and barriers. My day really looks like helping those to get from surviving to thriving, and that consists of outreaching, emails, setting up interviews for research studies where we're trying to figure out how people get through their periods of transitional housing to permanent housing. We're in the depths of interviewing folks to identify what are the real causes behind those barriers. It's a lot of outreaching, talking, advocacy, building on resources out in the community that people may need, communication back and forth, meeting with people face-to-face, networking within the housing support programs. I end my day with recapping everything I've done, but it doesn't end because I also do a lot of community work within my own community and with my kids' school.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Tiffany
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Do what your passion is, do what drives you. For me, that's a lot of different branches. It started from one, but it branched out to so many, and even though I may not have full time in those things, I still make it a part of my time to be involved in some way or somehow, even if it's just 30 minutes or an hour to 5 hours a month or so to still feel that I'm involved and still feel that I'm still passionate about that. I have a business, I'm doing all this volunteer work, and I'm trying to gear myself into the life science sphere with my education and career direction, but I still make it a part to be a part of those things that make me who I am today and for me to be able to do the things that I want to do. I'm not just restricted to one role, I have multiple different avenues to where I can garner my career, my passion, my goals, my determination, any of that field. I always surround myself with those that know more than me, or at least even some that may not even know more than me, but to give them that kind of inspiration. I have a lot to prove, and I'm still learning, I'm still growing, even though I have so many different avenues of where I pivot in. The close connections and mentorship is always, always important. You really need to have that background of having that support, because you don't want to just be in it as yourself. A lot of people are doing things on their own and not seeking the output of networking or opportunities from others just to validate, like, hey, is this something good, or that mentorship.
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