During high school, I knew I wanted to work for a cause. I dreamed of being a CEO of a nonprofit. After college, I began my journey exploring nonprofit jobs all of which did not pay enough for me to live on my own and I would be on call 24/7. While I didn’t mind the commitment to a cause, I began to wonder if there was a better way to serve an organization while making a living.

This lead me to work for the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. During my time at the AANS, I had an opportunity to help them build one of the first association websites. I knew nothing about websites but I was asked if I would help with this endeavor and of course said yes! I was lucky to have on the job training and I committed many nights to creating a top notch website with some great colleagues who now I call my friends.

After that experience, I was lucky enough to say yes again to an association who had an idea of starting up a web development company. Being young and enthusiastic, I thought this would be a great idea. I knew nothing about running a business or how to sell to associations but that is exactly what I was hired to do. I asked the CEO one day…what happens if this isn’t successful. His response was “we will find you something else to do”. Well, it was a very successful venture which I managed for 9 years. I had the opportunity to work with great organizations and thankful for many organizations like the AAOMS, AOFAS and AADE who took a risk with this “kid” to help them build their first web presence.

Now I have had the opportunity to take organizations through their digital transformation through my company .orgSource. I have been very grateful this past 10 years to be able to serve the association industry. I have made friends, helped many causes and had an opportunity to help create exciting experiences for members of various organizations.

It is no longer enough to be relevant! Information technology continues to be EVERYTHING for an association. Through my on the job learning experiences that my past association jobs provided me, I have been able to help organizations truly transform and help them with their digital journeys. The future is here and I am very excited about what is next.

I will be writing and journaling my experiences working with fabulous organizations on their digital transformations. Stay tuned!