WOMEN TRANSFORMING SONOMA COUNTY THROUGH COLLECTIVE PHILANTHROPY | MARCH 2021 | ISSUE 42 |
|
Community Grants Committee |
|
|
Membership - Let's Keep the Momentum Going! |
|
|
Bring your guests along to two March Zoom events:
Spotlight on the Intersection of Business and Philanthropy featuring Jen Stasch, Executive Director of Pediatric Dental Initiative (PDI) Surgery Center, on March 29, 4:30 PM. Jen will inform us about yet another hugely impactful North Bay nonprofit. Register your guest and yourself here.
Cocktails & Conversations, March 31, 5:30-6:30, is an informative and fun time to expose guests to Impact 100 Redwood Circle. Register your guest and yourself here.
|
|
|
 |
Jen Stasch, Executive Director, Pediatric Dental Initiative (PDI) - Monday, March 29 at 4:30 p.m.
Pediatric Dental Initiative (PDI) is a treasured organization of Sonoma County with a broad reach in serving children from both far and near. As reflected in the organization’s most recent Annual Report, PDI treats more than 1,300 low income pediatric and special needs patients per year. Since 2008, PDI has served Northern California as an important dentistry resource in providing urgent care to low-income children who need extensive dental treatment under general anesthesia, and in promoting prevention education for better oral health. There has never been a greater need for PDI’s services than now. As COVID-19 reaches every part of California and beyond, widespread inequalities existing before the outbreak are further exacerbated and intensified in the lives of young children growing up in poverty and underserved communities.
In July 2020, Jen Stasch joined PDI as Executive Director. Jen has over a decade of leadership experience in health and human services, advocating for low-income children and other vulnerable populations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hawaii, and Phoenix. She has a long record of working with public officials, Board of Directors, leadership teams, and diverse constituencies to resolve complex community challenges through advocacy, fund development, administration, strategic planning, and coalition building. Prior to joining PDI, Jen spent the two years consulting with non-profit and community-based organizations on strategic planning, fund development and infrastructure development.
As the Director of Partners in Care, Hawaii, she led the administrative and programmatic operations of the island of Oahu’s Continuum of Care in serving families and individuals experiencing homelessness. A proud mother and avid reader, Jen enjoys hiking, swimming, and exploring new places. Jen holds two advanced degrees including a Juris Doctor from the University of San Francisco and a Master’s in Public Health from Loma Linda University. She says, “I am thrilled to be a part of the PDI team, and so impressed by the community’s passion for the organization’s mission and commitment to the thousands of children and special needs patients we serve. Nothing warms my heart more than a child’s smile!” Register here
|
|
|
|
Learn More About Forget Me Not Farm Children’s Services
Our 2019 Impact Grant winner has invited the members of Impact 100 Redwood Circle to visit the Farm. So if you’re a new member, or if you missed out on the tour last year, be sure to sign up. It’s a delightful place and you will leave feeling proud of the support we’ve given them.
Visitors will meet the resident therapy animals and walk through the organic gardens. The history of Forget Me Not Farm will be explained and we will learn how the pandemic has impacted their work. Tours are limited to 10 people. All members will need to wear a mask, comfortable shoes and sunscreen – and plan to have a fun morning. This is a members only event. No exceptions.
All tours take place from 10 – 11:30. Please register using one of the links. Below.
Registrants will receive an email confirmation with further instructions.
|
|
|
|
New Feature! Share Your Story - Tamara Stanley |
|
|
As a kid growing up in Santa Rosa, Tamara Stanley loved big community events, like the county fair, Fourth of July fireworks and the Burbank Rose parade. Her family didn’t have much money to spare on entertainment so her single mom made sure she and her sister enjoyed all the “free” events they could.
When her Mom married Rincon Valley Elementary Principal Bob Stanley, Tamara began to realize those events didn’t just happen. It takes “lots and lots of people coming together,” she says. Stanley, who adopted Tamara, became the first in a line of mentors who would lead Tamara into the world of actually making those community events happen.
A graduate of Montgomery High School, she picked up units at SRJC and a Human Resources certificate at Sonoma State. While working at Food 4 Less, Tamara came to the attention of her boss, Mike Runyan, another of her mentors, who asked her to represent him on the committee planning “First Night,” a New Year’s Eve non-alcoholic downtown gala involving music, food and family friendly activities that ran from 1996 to 2002. “That was a turning point,” she recalls. “I was at the table with all these amazing folks with so many different backgrounds and we all had a common interest with First Night. I was hooked on community.” That led to Leadership Santa Rosa, a job as Development Director for the Volunteer Center and another important mentor, Karen Johnson, director of the Volunteer Center at the time.
As the chief fund raiser for the Volunteer Center, Tamara helped plan and direct some of Santa Rosa’s most beloved events including the Sweetheart’s Ball, Giving Tree (now Secret Santa) and The Human Race. She was especially impressed by the way agencies worked together.” It didn’t matter how small or big you were, all these nonprofits came together. It was magical.”
She left the Volunteer Center for a seven-year stint as Development Director at Hanna Boys Center where her philosophy of fund raising crystallized. “I don’t ask for money. All I do is tell people about a need and hope they want to support it,” she explains. “I have to be 100% committed to the vision and be willing to give my own money to it. I’m a professional connector, not a professional fund raiser.”
She took a couple of detours into the world of finance but found herself “always pining for community work again.” She volunteers for Circuit Rider, the Schulz Museum and Habitat for Humanity, even serving briefly as its CEO. Currently she’s General Manager of Snoopy’s Home Ice, a job she accepted just days before COVID closed its doors. The arena has used its COVID down time to refurbish, clean and modernize facilities and is “more than ready for the next chapter,” she says.
Tamara finds that a side benefit of Impact 100 Redwood Circle is that it helps raise awareness “of important services offered here” in addition to actually funding programs. Divorced mom to grown daughter Ashleigh, the ‘professional connector’ reconnected with Eric Lindberg, an acquaintance from her Santa Rosa school days, and now her husband for the past ten years.
|
|
|
Recap of Jan.14 ED TALK with
Sheba Person-Whitley
On January 14th, the Education Committee hosted its first in a series of ED TALKS exploring the theme of Resiliency. Planned talks will highlight some of the many efforts and community partnerships underway designed to build and strengthen the resiliency of Sonoma County. Fortunately for all of us, Sheba Person-Whitley, Executive Director of the Sonoma County Economic Development Board (EDB), accepted our invitation to be the first to address this topic. Her positivity, enthusiasm and professional commitment was energizing! Sheba explained the ways the EDB has been supporting small businesses from all sectors, including nonprofit organizations, since the start of the pandemic. Her description of EDB’s role in the administration of $2.5 million through the Small Business Stabilization Grant program, and the development of a five year Economic Recovery Action Plan, revealed EDB’s full commitment to equity access, diversity and community engagement.
DID YOU KNOW?:
- EDB awarded 542 grants ranging from $2,500 to $15,000 to small business with 30 or fewer employees. Almost 80% went to those with low to moderate income, and 56% to people of color. Top industries included restaurants, personal care services, and retail, in addition to 21 nonprofit organizations.
-
EBD’s 2020 COVID-19 Economic Recovery Action Plan identifies 13 key strategies for economic, community and business resiliency and recovery. The plan development process utilized a “Whole Community” approach utilizing public, nonprofit and private sectors to collectively understand and address needs. Cultural sensitivity, outreach and access expansion to the Latinx community and other potentially underserved populations is a high priority in all of EBD’s work.
- EBD partners with SCOE, CTE Foundation, and The LIME Foundation to host “Manufacturing Day” each October. This creates opportunities for high school students to visit local manufacturing facilities, exposing them to potential career and educational pathways.
Next ED TALK - Dr. Claudia Luke
On April 22 at 12:00 noon, the Education Committee will host Dr. Claudia Luke, Director of SSU Center for Environmental Inquiry and SSU Sustainability Programs Director
Dr. Luke earned her Ph.D. in Zoology from UC Berkeley. She has 20 years of experience directing field stations for the University of California and California State University systems. Throughout her career, she has worked extensively with partners and collaborators to build regional research and management collaborations that engage students and faculty in regional challenges surrounding watershed management, fire management, environmental technology, habitat connectivity, biodiversity, and education. As Director of the Center of Environmental Inquiry, she promotes education and research on 4,200 acres of wildlands at three SSU field stations (Fairfield Osborn Preserve, Galbreath Wildlands Preserve, and Los Guillicos Preserve). In 2018, Dr. Luke received the North Bay Leadership award in conservation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
