Have you met Lizzie Honan?
If you have, I’m sure you would agree that 1. Our Regional Director of New York is thoughtful, wry, and whip smart and 2. People are her passion.
How It Started
Lizzie hails from Albany, New York. Her family story is layered and interesting – much like Lizzie herself. As a teenager attending Albany city schools, Lizzie embraced volunteerism early. She lent her time to T.O.U.C.H., a local nonprofit organization that provided HIV education as well as a buddy program for children infected or affected by HIV. This experience, along with inequities she observed in her hometown, began to inform her view of the world and the way people lived.
She earned a scholarship to attend Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York, where she studied for two years before seeking out a more aligned educational experience. She landed in Brooklyn, where she enrolled at Brooklyn College, an experience that she absolutely loved.
After her graduation from CUNY Brooklyn College with a degree in Sociology and Children’s Studies, Lizzie set out to work at a nonprofit, and joined Madison Square Park Conservancy. Nonprofit work agreed with her, and she was promoted several times over – learning every aspect of running the organization. During her tenure she worked in events, HR, staff management, development, and strategic planning. Her growth mirrored the growth of the Conservancy, whose staff and budget grew considerably during her time there.
After nine years, she was ready to spread her wings, and accepted a position at Edible Schoolyard NYC. Lizzie is a foodie and veggie lover, so the mission of teaching kids gardening and cooking was right up her alley. She worked alongside the Executive Director, doubling their budget, and formalizing processes and structures.
But over time, Lizzie’s high impact, high stress positions led to her feeling the weight of the world upon her shoulders, and burnout became an issue. Ironically, this sense of nonprofit leader burnout is what RevJen works to combat – and is the very thing that would ultimately lead her to us.
How It’s Going
Lizzie took a step back from her role, adopted a dog (enter Boomer), and did some nonprofit consulting work on development and strategic plans. It was through one of these engagements that she became aware of RevJen, and our search for a New York Regional Director. Intrigued, she did her due diligence, was impressed with the value of our programs, and identified with our focus on serving nonprofit leaders. So, she joined us.
And can we just say, we are so glad she did! Lizzie is thoughtful, insightful, and the wide swath of her experience and input is invaluable to the work that we do. She cares deeply and works hard to have a positive impact on the leaders we serve and has connected tremendously to the New York R-Squared community of leaders, who have bonded over the impact of COVID in the area. As she puts it, “these leaders have been in the trenches together.”
Like I said – people are her passion.
Lizzie and Boomer (a great looking two year old Sheepadoodle) are still proud Brooklynites. When she isn’t working hard to support leaders in her region, you will find her at the dog park or the farmers markets looking for beautiful vegetables to experiment with.
