While Angela has been a part of our team for a decade, recently celebrating her ten year anniversary with SCI earlier this year, her journey of helping others started long before.
Angela has always had a passion for helping others and making a difference. This passion led her to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Family Studies, and a Master’s degree in nonprofit management.
While working towards her Master’s degree, Angela gained firsthand experience working at a nonprofit, assisting in the Housing Department at So Others May Eat, a nonprofit that provides food and housing resources to impoverished individuals living in the Washington, DC area. And just before joining SCI, she served as a case manager for individuals living in low-income housing, where she supported families through life transitions, teaching budgeting and job readiness.
Needless to say, Angela has a true heart of service. “I just want to make a difference in the world,” she shares. “Money is whatever – I have to pay my bills – but what’s my impact? That’s my reason.”
Today, ten years into her career at Service Coordination, she continues to be motivated by the fact that the work she does truly matters.
“The work we do every day directly impacts someone’s life. It matters. It can be a hard day, it can be a tough day, but you power through and know it meant something, she says. “That work, the reason you did it, is because if you didn’t, someone’s life would be negatively impacted. It’s really important.”
Angela also finds fulfillment in watching the people she supports achieve the goals they’ve set for themselves – whether that’s learning how to do laundry independently, making their bed every day, or landing a job they worked hard to get. “Seeing them succeed is everything,” Angela says.
In addition to supporting the people on her caseload, she also serves as a peer mentor for new staff, helping them get acclimated to SCI and manage their work load. “I can feel they’re overwhelmed. I’m here to walk them through it, and am with them every step of the way.”
Despite all that she’s accomplished professionally, Angela cites being a mother as her proudest accomplishment, acknowledging how difficult her journey to motherhood was. “I always wanted to be a mom, but it took a lot of hard things to get here,” she says.
Angela took her pain and turned it into helping others navigating grief and loss, serving as a founding board member and the president of Stillborn and Infant Loss Support (SAILS), a nonprofit she helped launch with a friend to create community for grieving parents, and another one of her proudest accomplishments.
Angela strives to raise her son to be kind and compassionate. “I want him to have a heart like mine and to care about others,” she says. “I want to show my son that we take care of people around us and help raise him to be a good person.”
When asked about the best advice she’s ever received, she keeps it simple: “One day at a time. If you can’t do the week, do the day. If you can’t do the day, do the next meal. Break it into smaller pieces and keep going.”
Angela, we are so proud to have you on our team. Here’s to ten years of meaningful impact – and many more ahead!