我们采访了Quanisha绿色, m.s.S.S. ‘15, the new associate director of the Center for 专业发展 and administrator of the Nonprofit Executive Leadership Institute (NELI). 她在社会部门的领导方面有着令人印象深刻的背景, 在这个领域有超过20年的经验. 在获得M之后.S.S., 她创办了自己的公司，黑人女性CEO, 她在那里为黑人女性企业家提供商业指导. gssswsr很高兴有她的团队!
What do you bring to your current role as associate director of the Center for 专业发展?
我认为我给这个职位带来的一个重要因素是我广阔的人脉, which has helped the Center expand its outreach to speakers with whom I have professional and personal connections. NELI历来有两个系列的领导力项目, 一种是为晋升的领导者和中层管理者准备的, 另一种是针对更高级的高管. 现在，我们的愿景是有更多的独立培训. So, I’m focused on building out these single-session trainings on additional skills that people need as nonprofit and social sector professionals to promote their leadership. I’ve been able to use my network to bring in some new training on topics like artificial intelligence for nonprofit professionals and thought leadership.
I also bring to this role my own experience and knowledge of what it takes to be a good leader and what skills are necessary to get promoted and develop as a professional. 当头脑风暴我们应该提供什么样的培训, I’m thinking holistically about the skills that nonprofit and social sector leaders need to move up in their roles and impact their organizations. 我们还组织了一个自我保健系列，因为这是一个大问题. 这个系列探讨了从事护理职业的人如何照顾自己, 以及导致倦怠的因素. 我在创业过程中结识的一个人将领导这个系列.
另外, 因为我是做生意的, a large part of my role is marketing our 程序s and thinking about how we can fill these 程序s, especially our new stand-alone 程序s that don’t have a reputation or alumni like our existing NELI 程序 offerings. 我在用我在市场营销方面的经验, 社区组织, and change-making to effectively convey to people how these workshops can help them move forward in their careers. 当我在非营利机构工作的时候, 我会告诉人们，我的工作是推销变革, 我认为这也适用于我在专业发展中心的工作.
You mentioned that you engaged in entrepreneurship before joining the Center for 专业发展. 你能告诉我关于这份工作的情况以及你是如何进入这份工作的吗?
My work as a business coach for Black women entrepreneurs partially stemmed from my master’s thesis that I did at the GSSWSR with Raymond Albert, 我的论文导师. 我对探索黑人组织者从事社会正义工作的经历很感兴趣. 在我作为社会正义领域的组织者期间, I encountered a lot of Black women who would tell me to not give my life over to organizations and to take more ownership of my work. They expressed that they were suffering from physical illnesses due to the stress on their bodies from compromising their wellbeing in the workplace. Hearing about these experiences inspired me to pursue entrepreneurship and help other Black women gain leadership skills to move up in their professions.
我的硕士论文关注的是黑人女性的经历和她们的心理健康. I used my personal experience to explore what the literature said about Black women’s relationship to leadership. 基于研究, 我开始了我的事业, 黑人女性崛起, 现在被称为黑人女性CEO, 帮助黑人女性获得领导技能并在工作中获得晋升. 当我在做那份工作的时候, there was a segment of folks who were highly motivated to get support and become Black women entrepreneurs. 文献显示，尽管有很高的资历和资格, 黑人女性在职场的晋升往往被忽视. Those experiences were being echoed through the anecdotes I heard from Black women in various spaces when 我开始了我的事业. 他们告诉我，因为这些被忽视的经历, 他们想走出去，开创自己的事业. 由于这种确定的需要, 我把我的工作扩展到帮助女性成为企业家, 而不仅仅是在他们目前可能面临歧视的工作岗位上晋升.
I worked for an organization called Happy Black Woman starting spring semester of my second year in the M.S.S. 该项目也旨在帮助黑人女性创业. 这个机会让我对黑人女性的商业指导更感兴趣了. If I hadn’t done the research for my thesis or looked at my own life and what was and wasn’t working for me as a Black woman professional, I wouldn’t have been prepared when I was met with the opportunity of helping women who wanted to become entrepreneurs. 许多因素使我从事这项工作, such as the theoretical frameworks I was rooted in and my independent study within 社会工作. 我还参加了组织管理与行为认证 Darlyne贝利 当时谁是gsssr的院长. 毕业后, I was able to use my 社会工作 education to explore these topics and work for myself in organizational development. 当时, I still had ties to the nonprofit and social justice community but was also able to explore the unique topic of Black women and entrepreneurship as a business and do consulting and coaching work around that.
你知道你想做社区工作进入M吗.S.S. 程序?
是的. 进入M区.S.S. 因此，我更多地从组织和系统的中观和宏观层面进行思考. I analyzed larger policy frameworks and thought about how I could actually engage in social change. I saw my business as a form of social justice because it worked towards economic justice for Black women by increasing their earning potential. 作为黑人女性, 我们损失了大约1美元,000,000 in our lifetime due to bias and discrimination that causes wage inequality and unequal hiring opportunities. I wanted to create a business that made up for these losses since these systems aren’t changing fast enough to address these inequalities.
Do you have any advice for current students who are looking to do more macro-level 社会工作 in the nonprofit and related sectors?
It’s important for students to hone their networks, especially if they want to stay in the region. 我认为发展和投资人际关系对所有学生都是至关重要的, 尤其是宏观经济学的学生, 利用领导力发展的机会. It is important for macro 社会工作ers pursuing a career in the nonprofit space to not only focus on gaining subject matter expertise through their coursework, but also work on professional development and gaining the skills they would need to get jobs in this field. 宏观社会工作者应该学会如何有效地讲述自己的故事, 写一份引人注目的简历和求职信, 建立他们的思想领导力.
我认为是针对宏观经济学学生的, their career moves might look a little different because there isn’t as clear of a path to getting certain jobs as there is with clinical students. 所以，他们必须进行传统的求职. 这就是学生的人际网络可以帮助找工作的地方. 即使他们有社会工作学位, 他们现在要和其他有硕士学位的人竞争, and so they have to create a compelling story of why their degree in macro 社会工作 will lend itself better to a certain role than someone who has a master’s in public policy or another related field.