of trustees, expanding her work as a volunteer leader with Children’s Bureau. As a trustee, Stephanie is currently working with a small group charged with exploring ways to get more people involved in and contributing to Children’s Bureau.

“Stephanie is a dedicated volunteer leader and generous supporter of Children’s Bureau. She is a hard worker and someone who is always willing to go that extra mile when needed. We deeply appreciate her friendship and commitment to our mission of preventing child abuse,” said Children’s Bureau President & CEO Alex Morales. We spoke with Stephanie about her experience with Children’s Bureau.

How are you involved with the agency?
As in most organizations these days, everyone can use a little help. In both departments, I do whatever needs to be done. For example, NuParent does multi-day training sessions a number of times per year. Every session requires a lot of copying and collating in putting together the printed materials used during the session. Recently, Lani Parente was trying to reach me because they needed to put together 600 sets of material! With a small staff, that takes a lot of time away from their regular duties. In Development, I’ve done everything from stuffi ng envelopes to cleaning up databases to making phone calls to confi rm attendance at various meetings. Again, it frees up time for the staff to do their important work. I also worked on the First Annual Toy Boutique in December with Melanie Boyd, Carrie Tilton and Liza-Mae Carlin. It was quite a rush to see the results! Most recently, I’ve been working on a committee with Paul Santello, Bryan Boghosian and Jenny Jones to explore ways to get more people involved in and contributing to Childrens’ Bureau. There’s no shortage of work to be done and I love doing it!

How have you seen Children’s Bureau change in the time you’ve been involved?
The main changes I’ve seen are in looking for ways to deal with a changing economy and to get more people involved in the organization and its mission. After a career in the private sector, I really notice people getting in touch with their customers, and I think the staff at Children’s Bureau has really done a good job of making the shift to their new community at Magnolia Place.

What do you see as the agency’s greatest strengths?
The devotion of its staff and their dedication to serving their community. I’ve also witnessed a great sense of collaboration, which is all too rare. People don’t seem to operate in what we called silos – they understand the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

What motivates you to continue to help the agency?
Same as above! I feel there’s a real opportunity to make a difference at Children’s Bureau. Everyone I’ve met and/or worked with is genuinely appreciative of my time and effort.

Any special moments for you?
Every time I walk under the “sky canopy” area at Magnolia Place and see a small child in a conference room with his or her parents, I fi nd it very touching. Also, the second or third day I was there, I called my former assistant and said, “I should have been a lot more effusive with you. The people at Children’s Bureau can’t say thank you enough! It feels great!”

How is Children’s Bureau different from other organizations with which you are involved?
It’s a very functional, effi cient group of people – no barriers that I can see and people who are happy to be doing what they do.

What do you see in Children’s Bureau’s future in this community?
I think the more Children’s Bureau can get its message out and make people in the community aware of the opportunities available at Magnolia Place so that they will use it to its fullest extent, the brighter their future will be. I also think the more we can bring community leaders into the organization (and I recommend from the ground up), the easier it will be to spread that word.