2015 Women to Watch Award in Nonprofit
Q&A with Nonprofit category winner Natasha Davis
The 2015 WILMA's Women to Watch Award winner in the Nonprofit category is NATASHA DAVIS, director of University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Quality Enhancement for Nonprofit Organizations (QENO).
Davis is head of QENO, which organizes training for nonprofits on topics such as board governance and financial planning. It also gives organizational coaching to groups and provides technical assistance through UNCW students and AmeriCorps volunteers. She started working at the group as a graduate student – Davis was getting her master’s degree in public administration – in 2010 and was named director three years later.
Davis studied accounting as an undergraduate and then worked as a finance manager for a manufacturing facility in Wilmington until downsizing eliminated middle management positions, including hers. It was after that, during a month-long trip with her sister to Cambodia and Thailand where she volunteered with an orphanage and talked with non-governmental organizations, that Davis decided to take her business background to the nonprofit world.
WILMA: What inspired you to pick the field you’re in now?
"While working with the Community Foundation of Southeastern North Carolina (now the New Hanover Community Foundation), I was able to learn about all the amazing nonprofits that we have in our region. It was then that I found a way to perfectly merge my business experience and training with my strong desire to make this community better."
Are there any mentors or role models, famous or personal, you've looked to in your career?
"There are so many. I don’t look to famous people for role models because we have some many amazing people right here in southeastern North Carolina. I have been fortunate to be able to surround myself by amazing teachers, and I try to model the characteristics and traits from each of them that I most value.
It would be impossible to list them all here. The CFO from my first 'big' accounting job, Earnest Plummer, saw my potential and always pushed me to not just know what to do, but why we do it that way. He cultivated my curiosity and desire to understand the big picture instead of just the details.
Karen Pappas has taught me to live and work with passion and to keep going when times are tough. Laurie Paarlberg taught me the value of research and seeing past the trends to determine the true value of a theory or method. Bertha Todd has taught me grace. She has faced so much adversity in her lifetime and yet she lives and exemplifies dignity and grace. There are so many more."
What do you hope to be doing in the years to come?
"My life and career has been guided by fate and faith. So, who knows what’s next? I hope to be able to grow my sphere of influence to have a greater impact on the nonprofit sector and higher education in our region, state, and country. I would love to see QENO flourish into a university-wide initiative that continues to increase the engagement of our faculty and students in the nonprofit sector as well as research that benefits the sector.
I also hope to become more involved in working with funders to find new ways of supporting the nonprofit sector so they can better meet the needs of our communities.
On a personal level, I would love to be more involved in re-entry support systems and advocacy for new systems and policies to support those re-entering our communities so they can have the support they need to restart their lives on a positive and successful path."
As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
"Well, I don’t remember having an occupation in mind, but I always wanted to be in charge. I was balancing my father’s business check book and paying his bills since I was in middle school. I was the office manager for a law office from age sixteen to eighteen and wanted to be a lawyer for a brief period."
What has being named a finalist, and a now winner, in the Women to Watch Awards meant for you personally and professionally?
"It is an amazing honor to be nominated and selected by those I mentor as well as those whom I consider mentors. It is also validation that all the hard work over the past few years has been noticed and valued. I hope that this recognition will allow me to have a larger reach to be a better advocate for our community, our university, the nonprofit sector, and the many issues that I hold dear."
Anyone you'd like to thank in relation to the award or any other comments to share?
"One of the best parts has been sharing this experience with fellow Woman to Watch finalist and dear friend Amy Feath who has done phenomenal things to protect the children of our community through her transitional leadership at The Carousel Center."
To view more of photographer Erik Maasch’s work, go to websta.me/n/emaasch
