Leadership for Social Good: Translating Your Passion into Action

Friday, September 28, 2012
1:00 pm – 5:30 pm (Pacific Time)
Reception from 5:30 pm – 6:30pm
Seattle University School of Law 
Sullivan Hall, Room C5 (lower level)
901 12th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98122

1:00pm Registration and Coffee Service     

1:30pm Program Begins

5:30pm Program Ends and Reception with Refreshments Begins (2nd floor Gallery)

6:30pm Reception Ends

Seattle University School of Law’s Access to Justice Institute, Center for Professional Development, and Office of Admissions, in collaboration with the Seattle University Institute of Public Service, are pleased to offer the first in a series of educational workshops designed to highlight organizational management and leadership development topics relevant to those interested in starting, leading, or otherwise succeeding in a nonprofit organization or other social venture.

This interactive program will provide an overview of the nonprofit sector and similar less traditional models, such as informal organizations, social purpose corporations, and public-private partnerships. Current leaders will also highlight what different paths toward leadership look like, share lessons learned from the field, and discuss how legal, public administration, and business skills translate into a variety of important roles. The session will also offer concrete ways for participants to add to their résumés and skills toolkits immediately as well as an opportunity to network with many leaders and practitioners from across sectors. This program is appropriate for law, MPA, and MBA students; recent alumni; and any practicing professionals who wish to engage in nonprofit work and would like to explore the field.

NOTE: This workshop is the first of a series of related nonprofit leadership offerings that will be available at the School of Law and Institute of Public Service in 2012-13. In later sessions participants will learn specific skills that will help develop their capacity for entrepreneurial thinking and for leading people and organizations that work toward the common good. Those who participate in the introductory session and at least three follow-up sessions will be eligible for a certificate of completion at the end of the series.

Draft Agenda:

1:00 pm:              Welcome

1:10 pm:              Getting to Know the Sector

This session will provide a brief overview of the current landscape of the nonprofit sector – what organizational models exist (including traditional organizations, community organizations, and related hybrid and private social purpose entities); common trends like public-private partnerships, social entrepreneurship, and globalization; and current, common challenges faced by many in the sector. We will also provide advance materials that explain common terminology, what it means to be a nonprofit, and relevant regulatory/governance rules.

2:05 pm:              Understanding Your Role

Your degree equipped you with a certain set of skills. How can they translate into nonprofit leadership roles? Which roles might be a good fit for your experience, interests, and passions? We will start by offering descriptions and examples of common nonprofit leadership positions. We will then work through an assessment exercise that will help participants understand which roles might be a good fit and what additional experience, skills, or knowledge may be needed to take the next step.

3:15 pm:              Leadership Lessons from the Field

A panel of Seattle University alumni and other leaders will discuss what they needed to know – and what they wished they had known – when starting out. This session will highlight leadership capacities that are important for anyone to develop in order to be effective, regardless of their position (strategic communication, effectively translating vision into practice, generating financial and other support, working across differences, etc.). Panelists will also talk about how their skills and training translated into their positions – and where they needed to fill gaps.

4:35 pm:              Taking the Next Steps

Whether you are a current student or a practitioner who is interested in transitioning into the nonprofit sector, there are things you can do – starting tomorrow – to build your leadership experience, your résumé, and your network. This final session will offer concrete suggestions and resources to help you take the next step toward finding an opportunity or position that is the right fit. Examples include other leadership and professional development programs, strategic volunteering opportunities, ways to frame or reframe your experience and goals, conferences, and student organization leadership. We will also preview future sessions in the Exploring Nonprofit Leadership series.

5:30 pm:              Networking Reception with Nonprofit Leaders and Resource Providers

Featured Speakers:

Judy Andrews is an adjunct professor at Seattle University School of Law and in the Master of Public Administration program, a nonprofit consultant, and practicing attorney. For more than 20 years, she has represented many nonprofit organizations on corporate and tax exemption issues including determination of tax-exempt status, legal obligations of directors, organizational structure and roles of board and staff, conversion, merger and affiliation issues, and federal tax-exemption issues. Before becoming a lawyer, Judy worked in nonprofit organizations, most recently as Executive Director of the Northwest Women’s Law Center in Seattle, Washington. She has been listed as a Super Lawyer in Washington State from 2003 to 2009 and was selected for inclusion in the 2009 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® in the specialty of Non-Profit/Charities Law.  Judy received her J.D. from the University of Notre Dame Law School.

Putnam Barber is the Senior Advisor at Idealist.org and a Senior Lecturer at the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington and works closely with the Nancy Bell Evans Center on Nonprofits & Philanthropy at the U.  He has also been an instructor in the Institute of Public Service at Seattle University. He is a founding board member of Washington Nonprofits, the state’s association of nonprofit organizations and has served on the Charities Advisory Council of the State of Washington, which is housed in the Office of the Secretary of State, since its creation in 2007. He has also served on the board of directors of the Thomas C. Wales Foundation, as one of the founding board members of Washington Attorneys Assisting Community Organizations (WAACO), and as Chair of the board of trustees of the Municipal League of King County. He is a graduate of Haverford College and holds a Master’s degree in demography from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Peter Drury is a seasoned nonprofit executive, strategist and fundraiser. He is currently Director of Development for A Child’s Right, an innovative international water relief enterprise, and adjunct faculty at the University of Washington (teaching Nonprofit Management, Leadership and Strategy). Peter is Past President of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) in Washington State. Additionally, he has served in board and advisory capacities with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Art With Heart, MultifaithWorks, EarthShare, the Northwest Girlchoir, and several PTA’s. Peter is creator of the “Beyond Cash” Fundraising Management Dashboard, a field-leading tool, and is particularly highly valued for bridging the Finance-Fundraising communication divide effectively. Drury holds an MBA from Seattle University, as well as an M.S.W. (Illinois), M.Div. (Yale), and B.A. (UW).

Maureen Emerson Feit is Acting Director of the SU Nonprofit Leadership Center.  Maureen holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Michigan. Her research considers how nonprofits successfully foster diverse and inclusive organizational cultures. Maureen has more than 15 years of leadership experience in the nonprofit sector, including Communities Schools Collaboration, OneAmerica and Powerful Voices. Now at Seattle University, she teaches program design and evaluation, board governance, and applied research methods in the Master of Public Administration and the Master of Nonprofit Leadership programs.

Lee Harper is the Executive Director of the Phinney Neighborhood Association (PNA). PNA’s mission is to build community and is a membership based organization serving northwest Seattle communities with programs ranging from a hot meal program to child care, a senior center, a farmers market, educational programs, an art gallery and more. Prior to PNA, Lee worked with Senior Services in Bothell as the director of the Northshore Senior Center (NSC). Lee spent the first ten years of her nonprofit career at Solid Ground, first as a program coordinator, and then as assistant director. She has an MNPL degree from Seattle University and is an adjunct faculty member, teaching nonprofit leadership to both undergraduates and graduates. She was a recipient of Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 under 40 Award in 2007.

Stacey Lara is the Director of Seattle University School of Law’s Center for Professional Development. Stacey received her J.D. from University of Washington School of Law, where she served as Managing Editor of Operations and Development on the Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal, and her M.P.A. from Seattle University. Prior to law school, she taught English in Korea and worked as a paralegal at a Seattle law firm. Stacey previously served as a public defender at The Defender Association, working in criminal, dependency, and Becca Bill litigation.

Jodi Nishioka has worked for over 20 years on behalf of low-income communities, particularly women, children and immigrant/refugee communities. She started her career as an attorney advocating for battered immigrant women and single mothers fighting for child support in legal aid organizations in Boston and Honolulu. Jodi continued her work on behalf of disenfranchised communities within state and city governments in Hawaii and Seattle and later with grassroots nonprofit organizations. Currently, Jodi enjoys her work at WAACO because it combines her legal skills with her dedication to improving the status of low-income communities. She believes in WAACO’s mission of increasing community development and capacity through its support of nonprofits and microenterprise businesses. Jodi is also on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Funding Alliance.

Sue Oliver is Director of the Entrepreneurship Center at the Albers School of Business and Economics. Sue has over 25 years of management and marketing experience, including management positions with WaMu, Mellon Analytical Services, and Russell Investments. She also founded Make Passion Possible, a non-profit incubator that supports young adults in launching new entrepreneurial ventures. She has also assumed volunteer roles with Washington CASH, Washington Women’s Employment & Education, and the Taproot Foundation. She holds an M.B.A. in finance, an M.A. in consciousness studies, and is also a licensed interfaith minister and ceremony officiate.

Ada Shen-Jaffe is a Professor from Practice at Seattle University School of Law, teaching frameworks for social justice lawyering, strengthening partnerships between legal education and the equal justice community, and establishing leadership development and support infrastructure models that are consistent with inclusion, diversity and cross-difference competence as justice imperatives. Professor Shen-Jaffe has been an active member of the equal justice community at the local, statewide and national levels for over three decades. She served as Director of Columbia Legal Services and Evergreen Legal Services, both statewide civil legal aid programs, from 1986 through 2004. Professor Shen-Jaffe received her B.S. from Tufts University, her M.S. in Community Organization and Planning, Honors Program in Social Policy from Columbia University, and her J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.

Registration Fees

$80  General Registration 
$60  Employed by Non-Profit or Gov’t Entity 
$60  SU Employees and SU Alumni, Class 2008 or Earlier
$40  SU Alumni, Classes 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012
Free for Current SU Students (space is limited)

Need based fee waivers for SU Law Alumni may be requested through the Access to Justice Institute, atji@seattleu.edu.