My 14 United Way Years: Reflections and Connections

When I joined United Way of Snohomish County in October of 2011, I knew very little about the world’s largest privately funded charity. I knew even less about their work in Snohomish County, Washington. Over the next nine years (four in Washington State and five at United Way Worldwide outside Washington, D.C.), I not only learned about the “United” way — I also had the most impactful professional experience of my career.

---

About "My 14 United Way Years"

Over the next year, I will be sharing highlights, stories, and lessons from my 14 years with the #UnitedWayFamily — four with United Way of Snohomish County, five with United Way Worldwide, and five (and counting) with United Way NEXT. "My 14 United Way Years: Reflections and Connections" is a personal look back at the people, projects, and moments that shaped my professional journey — and the lifelong connections that continue to inspire me. It’s my way of celebrating United Way NEXT’s 35th anniversary.

Follow along each month using #My14UnitedWayYears and the monthly hashtag (e.g. #MyUnitedWayOctobers) as I share memories, photos, and reflections from across the years.

---

After leaving United Way Worldwide in 2020, one of the first things I did was join United Way NEXT, the alumni organization for former staff. It was my way of staying in the #UnitedWayFamily. In addition to my colleagues who worked for the parent organization, I had developed strong relationships with staff at Local United Ways around the world and I wanted to maintain those connections.

My role at United Way kept me connected with local staff on a daily basis. I was tasked with sharing the latest resources, toolkits and announcements, and offering strategic advice on marketing, branding, messaging, crisis communications, social media, public relations and more. I spoke at dozens of conferences and ran monthly webinars on a variety of topics. Two of the projects that particularly kept me connected with local staff were sending out a daily email to 13,000 staff called “Breakfast with United Way” and starting and leading an award-winning, often-trending Twitter Chat called #UnitedWayChat.

In 2025, I joined the Board of United Way NEXT and chaired its Marketing Committee. We are celebrating our 35th anniversary this year, and it has inspired me to look back on the incredible people I had the chance to work with, my personal growth and professional development, and the fun we had along the way.

Inspired by my colleague Sree Sreenivasan’s #ThreeMetYears posts on Twitter (sharing highlights of his time as Chief Digital Officer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art), I have long wanted to do something similar.

I plan on sharing my best highlights and favorite memories each month over the next year. (I have a deep well of photographs, social media posts, and other artifacts from my 14 United Way Years.) For October, I will share all of my October highlights from across the years. In November, I will share November highlights, and so on.

Everyone I worked with, every community I visited, and every tweet I sent over my nine years with United Way (and the additional five years with United Way NEXT), made me who I am today. There were certainly some challenges along the way, but I can confidently say that the experience changed me for the better. My relationships meant everything to me. I hope to use these posts to reconnect with colleagues and maybe rekindle some of those relationships. That’s why I joined United Way NEXT: I wanted to stay connected to a time in my life where the work I did — and many of the people I worked with — filled my heart and soul with joy.

My next post will be a review of my United Way Octobers.