Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
iHeartMedia Presents CEOs you should know.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
I am John Dnkell, founder and CEO of Dentkele Business
Development and former president publisher of the Baltimore Business Journal.
This is Iheartradios CEOs you should know and I'm here
today with Jonathan Rondo, President and CEO of Fellow. Welcome Jonathan,
and thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. Yeah,
look forward to the conversation. Appreciate you you're taking the
time out today. I thought we'd begin to the conversation
(00:30):
just to get to know you a little bit better
than the organization. So for those who are not familiar,
could you tell us more about Fellow?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, I'd be happy to so. Fellow is an organization
that's been around for sixty four years. Up until recently
we were known as the Art to Central Chesapeake Region,
but has transitioned our brand, but our mission, vision and
values continue to be the same. Where our focus is
on creating inclusive, equadobal communities so people with disabilities have
(00:59):
access to services and opportunities to thrive.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Excellent and what is your mission?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
So our mission is about helping people with disabilities live
the life that they envision for themselves, whether that is
living in as independently as possible, whether that's accessing the
resources and the communities that they live with, getting a job,
or in sort of everything in between.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Awesome, awesome, thank you And yeah mentioned recently separated from
the ARC Federation. How did you arrive at the Fellow name?
And you know, with that separation from the ARC, does
that change your overall goals or plans for the future
of the organization.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I don't think our transition of our brand changes who
we have been and who we are into the future,
but allows us to be consistent to our own vision
of how services are provided, in how we we best
meet the needs of the communities that we serve, and
(02:03):
doing that as an independent brand around that. And so
that's been sort of an exciting venture for that. This
is the decision for us to transition to Fellow has
been one that we've been talking about for several years
and made the decision last fall to begin to transition
(02:25):
to that. In effect of May twenty first, we officially
became Fellow Excellent.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
And yeah, where'd you get the name from? I love
the name? How'd you come come to that?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So core from our founding core to our work has
been doing supporting people with disabilities in partnership and working
with our communities, and so as we began to think
about how we sort of define ourselves in a unified,
specific brand, the idea idea of doing this work in partnership,
(03:02):
and the idea that we are all fellow community members,
we're fellow citizens, we're fellow allies, and that we do
this work in fellowship is really where our Fellow name
came from.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Got it? I love that. That's great. That's great. Could
you talk about the services you offer for your community,
including the behavioral health and self directed services?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, so Fellow provides services and sort of we think
about it in sort of four core areas. One is
our legacy services. We're supporting people with disabilities to live, work,
and connect with their community, where direct support professionals are
supporting people to do that each and every day. About
(03:47):
twenty years ago, if we piloted with the State of
Maryland a program called self directed services where instead of
getting services from a provider like Fellow, people would disabilities
can access those services and hire their own staff. And
so we support about thirty to two hundred people across
the state of Maryland to hire their own staff and
(04:11):
facilitate their own services, and we provide all the back
office support, whether that's payroll, human resources, the billing, compliance,
things like that for people. Our third area is behavioral health,
where we support people with an intellectual and developmental disabilities
that also need access to mental health counseling or behavioral supports.
(04:33):
And so we have three behavioral health suites, one inlins
that come, one in seven and one in Eastern Maryland
where we're supporting people with disabilities to get the access
that they may not be able to get from other
community mental health providers. And then our last area of
work is around housing. And so housing was our first
(04:56):
service that we started in the early seventies, and housing
is foundational to anyone living independently and being successful. And
we also believe that housing should be inclusive, and so
our housing work isn't just for people with disabilities, but
creating apartment buildings and communities where there are people paying
(05:20):
market rate rent, people who need access to different levels
of affordability, people who need access to accessible units, all
sort of living in the same either complex or building
or things like that. And so we've been focused and
seeing growth in that area as well. So those are
the four areas that Fellow currently operates in.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
That's awesome, Yeah, And could you tell me a little
bit maybe a little bit more in depth about the
Fellow Communities. I know that that seems to me an
area that you've really focused on since you're in your
tenure there and really grown it on the Eastern Shore.
Could you talk a little bit about that maybe in
your plans for expanding that part of Fellow.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, So, Fellow Communities is our housing arm. We manage
about one hundred units for both people with disabilities and
people without Currently we have almost two hundred units in
the pipeline of development coming into the future. And again,
the focus of Fellow Communities is really about how do
(06:21):
we in the communities we serve, make sure that there's
access to affordable, safe, quality housing, but doing it in
a way where we're not just creating housing that's just affordable,
but looking at a model where there's mixed incomes living
in the in the same proximity around that. And so
(06:41):
we have a couple of small projects in Anaronto County,
but we have some larger projects, one that just kind
of completed in the fall Port Street Commons includes the
Residents at Port Street, which has nine affordable apartments for people,
two of which are universally designed for people with disabilities.
But we have several other projects in the town of Easton,
(07:04):
starting a mansion style apartment building that will have seven
units called the Laura House, twenty eight unit townhouse community
that will be for rental that seven of those units
will be for workforce housing. And then a larger project
that will be starting in the next year called Eastern
Crossing that will have about one hundred and twenty affordable
(07:26):
one hundred and twenty units, of which about forty of
them will be some level of affordability.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Wow, that's awesome. Congratulations, Thank you. It sounds like an
exciting growth opportunity as well.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
It is, and it's meeting and need that our communities have,
and it's core to our founding, which was around how
how we were founded on the premise of people with
disabilities should be fully included in their community. And we
believe that inclusion means that we're not just creating space
for people with disabilities, but that they're fully included with
(08:03):
people without disabilities, with people of other incomes, and then
done in a way that is a makes sense for
the community. That is, what makes sense in northern and
Rome County may not make sense in East End, may
not make sense in another part of the Eastern Shore.
And so really developing that housing that's responsive to the communities.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
That we're in. Yeah, that's great, that's great. Appreciate you
talking about that now. In the past or historically, you've
really focused on the Anarondola County area and down to
the Eastern Shore. With the transition, so Fellow with your
geographic handprint or footprint expand.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I think so while our legacy services have focused on
an Aroondo County and Eastern Shore, our self directed services
for the last nineteen years have been statewide and so
we have been a state ride provider of services. And
so this is just this transition just allowed us to
sort of acknowledge that and then as uh as over
the next year or so, as people reach out and
(09:09):
what are the communities surrounding our core current core area
says they need services, we'll be exploring that as well.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Got it, great, excellent. I want to get into a
little bit too, now, how is how is Fellow funded.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
To our services for people disabilities are primarily funded UH
through the State of Maryland, through UH, through Medicaid. Our
housing work is UH funded in a variety of different ways.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And and have you been impacted by the cuts and
funding from from state federal agencies?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So this year there there were While UH the disability
community was successful in restoring a significant amount of money,
there were some cuts that affect some level services, not
to the level that was proposed at the beginning of session.
And then the Medicaid cuts that happened at the federal level.
(10:10):
We know that it will have some level of effect
on us, but we don't. It will be on states
to determine that with the federal government, and that we'll
be learning more over the next coming months around what
that is and how we look for the people we serve.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Got it, God, I appreciate you explaining that how can
the how can the business community help and support fellow.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
So I think there's lots of different ways that the
business community can involved. So we're always looking for people
who are interested in getting involved in different ways, whether
that is potentially hiring someone with a disability, whether it's
someone we serve, or someone not getting involved in a
(10:58):
philanthropic way in some sort of partnership. That makes sense,
But we're also always looking in Our board is always
evolving for business leaders who might be interested in our
core mission. And people can always go to fellow dot
org to learn more information about what we do and
ways to get involved.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Excellent, excellent, thank you. Yeah, and you guys just finished
off like a big fundraising mat a golf tournament. I
know this was really well supported by the business community.
And do you have any events coming up for the fall?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
So we do. We do one sort of signature event
each year, and that is our golf tournament, where we
raised about two hundred and sixty thousand dollars and had
over two hundred and eighty community members participate in that.
In twenty twenty six, we'll be going into our sixty
(11:55):
fifth anniversary, who will have an exciting event that in
addition to our golf tournament that we'll be talking about
in the coming months. But nothing sort of specific, No
specific events this fall.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Gotcha, Well, we'll definitely be keeping our eyes open for
those events for sure. Switching gears a little bit, tell
us a little bit about your personal background. How do
you got to this point in your career?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I got connected to people with disabilities. When I was
a teenager working at a summer camp for kids in
adults with disabilities and thought it would be a one
time summer job and was a really life changing experience
for me, and ended up working at that camp through
high school and college and getting my undergrad undergraduate degree
(12:44):
and rehabilitation counseling and disability studies, and then moved to
Maryland for a job so running a summer camp for
kids and adults in western Maryland with disabilities, and then
sort of twenty five years later, I'm still here and
have had the opportunity to work at different organizations making
an impact throughout Maryland and creating new and interesting opportunities
(13:06):
for people with disabilities to live the lives that they
want and choose to live.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
That's awesome. Well, I appreciate you sharing your story around that.
Thank you. So I like to talk about leadership on
the show, and how would you describe your leadership style.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
My leadership style is really sort of focused on sort
of two core things. One is imagining and being entrepreneurial
and thinking differently around how can we meet the needs
of the communities that we are serving and the people
that we serve and so that's one and the other
(13:41):
is that is for it to be participatory, right, that
the people we serve, our employees, the communities that we
are have to be part of what we do. And
so finding ways to sort of connect those two where
we can sort of think differently and go down to
path that other organizations or other leaders may not have
(14:01):
thought about or may not have ventured to do. But
also at the same time looking about how do we
make sure that everyone's part of that process and thinking
through that.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, which is uh, I imagine kind of hard those
two things. And what I take from that, Jonathan, which
was pretty interesting, is in such a large organization, you
have to be the visionary there, right, and and look
at those entrepreneurial opportunities like fellow communities and you know,
things like that to continue to expand UH services and
(14:34):
programming and the awareness and all those things. So having
that like really big strategic you know thought leadership and
UH and vision. But then then as you said, you
kind of also have to get input from everybody. You
have to you know, kind of get down and listened
(14:55):
and be participatory and collaborate. I imagine, you know, how do
you do that that seems it seems kind of difficult
to you know, really switch from big overall visioning down
to you know, being in the weeds a little bit
and getting that collaboration. Anything that you could share with
us or audience about that, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I think. I mean core is whenever you're going on
a journey, whether that's in your own personal life, whereas
leading an organization or a business, is that people need
to be to feel sort of engaged in part of
that process. And so I think a lot of my
job as the CEO of Fellow is to talk about
(15:36):
where we were, where we are, and where we're going
to be able to solicit input, but also to be
able to talk about sort of the why behind those right,
like not the big not just the big why of
why we exist as an organization broadly and what our
mission is in our approach and our values, but also
more sometimes more granularly and not necessarily deep into the weeds,
(16:00):
but sort of why does this particular service make sense?
And I think coming out of the pandemic, behavioral health
was an area that we began to double down on,
right and so people helping people understand what our approach
was for that but also most of us were experiencing
had either ourselves or a family member, whether they had
(16:20):
disability or not, that was dealing with mental health issues
as a result of the pandemic, and the pandemic isn't
the only time, it wasn't the only time that people
had difficulty accessing those things, and so really just helping
people being less sort of wonky about it, but more
talking about why this is important, particularly for people with disabilities,
(16:44):
comparing it to like, it's just what anyone would need, right,
and how our approach may be different so that way
people can access it and we can remove whatever barriers
there may be, whether that's housing barriers or employment barriers,
or barriers to behavioral health. But at the end of
the day, it's still the same same core thing. And
so I think the two go part and parcel. But
(17:06):
I think a big part of my job every day
is really just talking about what we what we do
in solicitating and seeking sort of input and thoughts and
getting people whether that's internal or external, to jump on
board for what we're doing and where we're going.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Yeah, that's great, I appreciate you sharing all that. That's excellent.
So you kind of alluded to this a little bit.
You know, resilience seems to be the buzzword these days.
What does that? What does the resilience mean to you?
And how do you demonstrate that leading your team?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
So we think resilience, I think for me is just
I'm in an forever optimist, and so I'm always cognizant
and aware of what's happening around me, whether that's internal
to our organization or external things that I can't necessarily control.
But the reality is I can't worry about things I
(18:05):
can't control, and so all we can do is respond
and react and to keep focused around that. So, as
an organization that is nearly sixty five years old, we've
gone through times where there weren't any rights for people
with disabilities, to huge funding and philosophical changes of the
(18:26):
eighties and nineties, moving out of institutions and so to
multiple recessions and multiple approaches to how our services are funded.
And so when you sometimes when you skip, when you
zoom back out and start of say, let's look at
sort of the directory of this right today doesn't seem
as bad now, doesn't mean that we don't deal with
(18:47):
challenges and things like that. But I think really saying like,
how do we always keep our eye to the future
and then figure out how to navigate those things rather
than being solely focused on what is happening happening today.
So it's it's trying to find those balances.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Yeah, yeah, that's good. I like that. I like that,
appreciate it. Thanks for sharing. Since you've been the organization,
it's it's you know, doubled in size. What advice would
you give you know, other nonprofit leaders out there, you know,
on leadership and navigating you know, this kind of these
(19:27):
kind of uncertain times right now with the you know,
the state, local government and then funding, uh, you know,
gaps and challenges and things like that. Any any advice
for other nonprofit leaders.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
So, I think oftentimes at the moment when whether that's
the pandemic or this moment in time when there seems
to be funding or fiscal or policy challenges, oftentimes are
in a leader's instinct sometimes man many times is just
of go inward right and sort of reflect and retrench.
(20:04):
And I actually think that are what we've done over
the last eight years is using those moments, whether that
was the pandemic or today today, is to sort of
lean in, right, and this is the time to sort
of lean in and think about how we're doing that,
because oftentimes those are also the moments when the people
who need our mission and services and work is at
(20:29):
its highest and so determining how we sort of do that, Again,
you have to be aware of what's happening, but sort
of strategically leaning in and approaching. And so I would
really sort of the advice I would give is just
challenge all leaders to sort of say, what's the way
you can lean in. It may not be is the
(20:49):
way that we are choosing to lean in, but there's
little ways every day that you can lean into this
moment and for the betterment of your organization, for the
betterment of the people you serve, or are the communities
that you're working with.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, it's funny you say that. I was having a
conversation like this with colleague of mind last week and
we were talking about this, and in particular it was
in regard to nonprofits. But you can say this about anybody.
What is that focus on your core competencies and focus
on those core missions. You know, I've seen you know,
in an effort to you know, expand programming or expand funding.
(21:26):
You you know, some nonprofits start to go out into
things that are beyond their core mission. But yeah, to
your point, maybe right now is the time to really
lean in and focus on those you know, kind of
core values, core mission, core product services, you know, whatever,
you know, type of business that you're in, and you
(21:46):
know and and serve the constituents or serve the you know,
the people that you know are your customers or your community.
So that's good. I appreciate you show you commenting on that.
So what gets excited about the future of a fellow.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
What gets me excited and what drives me every day
is the opportunities that lie ahead in the ways that
we can think about working with the communities that we serve,
how we can think about new opportunities and partnerships to
further our mission and reach and outcomes for the people
(22:27):
we serve. I think that both those opportunities and challenges
are are exciting and I think allows us to sort
of just have a different approach. And that's what gets
me excited every day.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah, awesome. And on the other side of things, what
what keeps up at night, I think.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
I think is sort of just not the unknown right
of you can control what's in your sort of sphere
of influence, and so what's that possibility. I don't I'm
someone who doesn't subscribe to over thinking about that or
literally not avoiding my sleep as a result of that.
(23:16):
But I think we just we do, particularly in this
moment of moment in time, just need to be aware
that we can't be surprised by a surprise. How do we?
That's sort of probably the thing that keeps me up
at night the most.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Gotcha to wrap things up? Is there anything else you'd
like our listeners said about you and Fellow.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
I think just that. I think wanting our listeners to
really just know that Fellow who we are and what
we do, and for people to very interested in learning
more about how we could potentially partner together or how
people could access our services, just to go to Fellow
dot org.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, John. It was great
to get to talk with you and get to know
you a little bit more and more about the organization.
So I really appreciate you taking the time out today,
So thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Thank you, John, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
This has been iHeartMedia CEOs.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
You should know
iHeartMedia Presents CEOs you should know.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
I am John Dnkell, founder and CEO of Dentkele Business
Development and former president publisher of the Baltimore Business Journal.
This is Iheartradios CEOs you should know and I'm here
today with Jonathan Rondo, President and CEO of Fellow. Welcome Jonathan,
and thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. Yeah,
look forward to the conversation. Appreciate you you're taking the
time out today. I thought we'd begin to the conversation
(00:30):
just to get to know you a little bit better
than the organization. So for those who are not familiar,
could you tell us more about Fellow?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, I'd be happy to so. Fellow is an organization
that's been around for sixty four years. Up until recently
we were known as the Art to Central Chesapeake Region,
but has transitioned our brand, but our mission, vision and
values continue to be the same. Where our focus is
on creating inclusive, equadobal communities so people with disabilities have
(00:59):
access to services and opportunities to thrive.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Excellent and what is your mission?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
So our mission is about helping people with disabilities live
the life that they envision for themselves, whether that is
living in as independently as possible, whether that's accessing the
resources and the communities that they live with, getting a job,
or in sort of everything in between.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Awesome, awesome, thank you And yeah mentioned recently separated from
the ARC Federation. How did you arrive at the Fellow name?
And you know, with that separation from the ARC, does
that change your overall goals or plans for the future
of the organization.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I don't think our transition of our brand changes who
we have been and who we are into the future,
but allows us to be consistent to our own vision
of how services are provided, in how we we best
meet the needs of the communities that we serve, and
(02:03):
doing that as an independent brand around that. And so
that's been sort of an exciting venture for that. This
is the decision for us to transition to Fellow has
been one that we've been talking about for several years
and made the decision last fall to begin to transition
(02:25):
to that. In effect of May twenty first, we officially
became Fellow Excellent.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
And yeah, where'd you get the name from? I love
the name? How'd you come come to that?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So core from our founding core to our work has
been doing supporting people with disabilities in partnership and working
with our communities, and so as we began to think
about how we sort of define ourselves in a unified,
specific brand, the idea idea of doing this work in partnership,
(03:02):
and the idea that we are all fellow community members,
we're fellow citizens, we're fellow allies, and that we do
this work in fellowship is really where our Fellow name
came from.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Got it? I love that. That's great. That's great. Could
you talk about the services you offer for your community,
including the behavioral health and self directed services?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, so Fellow provides services and sort of we think
about it in sort of four core areas. One is
our legacy services. We're supporting people with disabilities to live, work,
and connect with their community, where direct support professionals are
supporting people to do that each and every day. About
(03:47):
twenty years ago, if we piloted with the State of
Maryland a program called self directed services where instead of
getting services from a provider like Fellow, people would disabilities
can access those services and hire their own staff. And
so we support about thirty to two hundred people across
the state of Maryland to hire their own staff and
(04:11):
facilitate their own services, and we provide all the back
office support, whether that's payroll, human resources, the billing, compliance,
things like that for people. Our third area is behavioral health,
where we support people with an intellectual and developmental disabilities
that also need access to mental health counseling or behavioral supports.
(04:33):
And so we have three behavioral health suites, one inlins
that come, one in seven and one in Eastern Maryland
where we're supporting people with disabilities to get the access
that they may not be able to get from other
community mental health providers. And then our last area of
work is around housing. And so housing was our first
(04:56):
service that we started in the early seventies, and housing
is foundational to anyone living independently and being successful. And
we also believe that housing should be inclusive, and so
our housing work isn't just for people with disabilities, but
creating apartment buildings and communities where there are people paying
(05:20):
market rate rent, people who need access to different levels
of affordability, people who need access to accessible units, all
sort of living in the same either complex or building
or things like that. And so we've been focused and
seeing growth in that area as well. So those are
the four areas that Fellow currently operates in.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
That's awesome, Yeah, And could you tell me a little
bit maybe a little bit more in depth about the
Fellow Communities. I know that that seems to me an
area that you've really focused on since you're in your
tenure there and really grown it on the Eastern Shore.
Could you talk a little bit about that maybe in
your plans for expanding that part of Fellow.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, So, Fellow Communities is our housing arm. We manage
about one hundred units for both people with disabilities and
people without Currently we have almost two hundred units in
the pipeline of development coming into the future. And again,
the focus of Fellow Communities is really about how do
(06:21):
we in the communities we serve, make sure that there's
access to affordable, safe, quality housing, but doing it in
a way where we're not just creating housing that's just affordable,
but looking at a model where there's mixed incomes living
in the in the same proximity around that. And so
(06:41):
we have a couple of small projects in Anaronto County,
but we have some larger projects, one that just kind
of completed in the fall Port Street Commons includes the
Residents at Port Street, which has nine affordable apartments for people,
two of which are universally designed for people with disabilities.
But we have several other projects in the town of Easton,
(07:04):
starting a mansion style apartment building that will have seven
units called the Laura House, twenty eight unit townhouse community
that will be for rental that seven of those units
will be for workforce housing. And then a larger project
that will be starting in the next year called Eastern
Crossing that will have about one hundred and twenty affordable
(07:26):
one hundred and twenty units, of which about forty of
them will be some level of affordability.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Wow, that's awesome. Congratulations, Thank you. It sounds like an
exciting growth opportunity as well.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
It is, and it's meeting and need that our communities have,
and it's core to our founding, which was around how
how we were founded on the premise of people with
disabilities should be fully included in their community. And we
believe that inclusion means that we're not just creating space
for people with disabilities, but that they're fully included with
(08:03):
people without disabilities, with people of other incomes, and then
done in a way that is a makes sense for
the community. That is, what makes sense in northern and
Rome County may not make sense in East End, may
not make sense in another part of the Eastern Shore.
And so really developing that housing that's responsive to the communities.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
That we're in. Yeah, that's great, that's great. Appreciate you
talking about that now. In the past or historically, you've
really focused on the Anarondola County area and down to
the Eastern Shore. With the transition, so Fellow with your
geographic handprint or footprint expand.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I think so while our legacy services have focused on
an Aroondo County and Eastern Shore, our self directed services
for the last nineteen years have been statewide and so
we have been a state ride provider of services. And
so this is just this transition just allowed us to
sort of acknowledge that and then as uh as over
the next year or so, as people reach out and
(09:09):
what are the communities surrounding our core current core area
says they need services, we'll be exploring that as well.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Got it, great, excellent. I want to get into a
little bit too, now, how is how is Fellow funded.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
To our services for people disabilities are primarily funded UH
through the State of Maryland, through UH, through Medicaid. Our
housing work is UH funded in a variety of different ways.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And and have you been impacted by the cuts and
funding from from state federal agencies?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So this year there there were While UH the disability
community was successful in restoring a significant amount of money,
there were some cuts that affect some level services, not
to the level that was proposed at the beginning of session.
And then the Medicaid cuts that happened at the federal level.
(10:10):
We know that it will have some level of effect
on us, but we don't. It will be on states
to determine that with the federal government, and that we'll
be learning more over the next coming months around what
that is and how we look for the people we serve.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Got it, God, I appreciate you explaining that how can
the how can the business community help and support fellow.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
So I think there's lots of different ways that the
business community can involved. So we're always looking for people
who are interested in getting involved in different ways, whether
that is potentially hiring someone with a disability, whether it's
someone we serve, or someone not getting involved in a
(10:58):
philanthropic way in some sort of partnership. That makes sense,
But we're also always looking in Our board is always
evolving for business leaders who might be interested in our
core mission. And people can always go to fellow dot
org to learn more information about what we do and
ways to get involved.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Excellent, excellent, thank you. Yeah, and you guys just finished
off like a big fundraising mat a golf tournament. I
know this was really well supported by the business community.
And do you have any events coming up for the fall?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
So we do. We do one sort of signature event
each year, and that is our golf tournament, where we
raised about two hundred and sixty thousand dollars and had
over two hundred and eighty community members participate in that.
In twenty twenty six, we'll be going into our sixty
(11:55):
fifth anniversary, who will have an exciting event that in
addition to our golf tournament that we'll be talking about
in the coming months. But nothing sort of specific, No
specific events this fall.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Gotcha, Well, we'll definitely be keeping our eyes open for
those events for sure. Switching gears a little bit, tell
us a little bit about your personal background. How do
you got to this point in your career?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I got connected to people with disabilities. When I was
a teenager working at a summer camp for kids in
adults with disabilities and thought it would be a one
time summer job and was a really life changing experience
for me, and ended up working at that camp through
high school and college and getting my undergrad undergraduate degree
(12:44):
and rehabilitation counseling and disability studies, and then moved to
Maryland for a job so running a summer camp for
kids and adults in western Maryland with disabilities, and then
sort of twenty five years later, I'm still here and
have had the opportunity to work at different organizations making
an impact throughout Maryland and creating new and interesting opportunities
(13:06):
for people with disabilities to live the lives that they
want and choose to live.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
That's awesome. Well, I appreciate you sharing your story around that.
Thank you. So I like to talk about leadership on
the show, and how would you describe your leadership style.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
My leadership style is really sort of focused on sort
of two core things. One is imagining and being entrepreneurial
and thinking differently around how can we meet the needs
of the communities that we are serving and the people
that we serve and so that's one and the other
(13:41):
is that is for it to be participatory, right, that
the people we serve, our employees, the communities that we
are have to be part of what we do. And
so finding ways to sort of connect those two where
we can sort of think differently and go down to
path that other organizations or other leaders may not have
(14:01):
thought about or may not have ventured to do. But
also at the same time looking about how do we
make sure that everyone's part of that process and thinking
through that.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, which is uh, I imagine kind of hard those
two things. And what I take from that, Jonathan, which
was pretty interesting, is in such a large organization, you
have to be the visionary there, right, and and look
at those entrepreneurial opportunities like fellow communities and you know,
things like that to continue to expand UH services and
(14:34):
programming and the awareness and all those things. So having
that like really big strategic you know thought leadership and
UH and vision. But then then as you said, you
kind of also have to get input from everybody. You
have to you know, kind of get down and listened
(14:55):
and be participatory and collaborate. I imagine, you know, how do
you do that that seems it seems kind of difficult
to you know, really switch from big overall visioning down
to you know, being in the weeds a little bit
and getting that collaboration. Anything that you could share with
us or audience about that, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I think. I mean core is whenever you're going on
a journey, whether that's in your own personal life, whereas
leading an organization or a business, is that people need
to be to feel sort of engaged in part of
that process. And so I think a lot of my
job as the CEO of Fellow is to talk about
(15:36):
where we were, where we are, and where we're going
to be able to solicit input, but also to be
able to talk about sort of the why behind those right,
like not the big not just the big why of
why we exist as an organization broadly and what our
mission is in our approach and our values, but also
more sometimes more granularly and not necessarily deep into the weeds,
(16:00):
but sort of why does this particular service make sense?
And I think coming out of the pandemic, behavioral health
was an area that we began to double down on,
right and so people helping people understand what our approach
was for that but also most of us were experiencing
had either ourselves or a family member, whether they had
(16:20):
disability or not, that was dealing with mental health issues
as a result of the pandemic, and the pandemic isn't
the only time, it wasn't the only time that people
had difficulty accessing those things, and so really just helping
people being less sort of wonky about it, but more
talking about why this is important, particularly for people with disabilities,
(16:44):
comparing it to like, it's just what anyone would need, right,
and how our approach may be different so that way
people can access it and we can remove whatever barriers
there may be, whether that's housing barriers or employment barriers,
or barriers to behavioral health. But at the end of
the day, it's still the same same core thing. And
so I think the two go part and parcel. But
(17:06):
I think a big part of my job every day
is really just talking about what we what we do
in solicitating and seeking sort of input and thoughts and
getting people whether that's internal or external, to jump on
board for what we're doing and where we're going.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Yeah, that's great, I appreciate you sharing all that. That's excellent.
So you kind of alluded to this a little bit.
You know, resilience seems to be the buzzword these days.
What does that? What does the resilience mean to you?
And how do you demonstrate that leading your team?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
So we think resilience, I think for me is just
I'm in an forever optimist, and so I'm always cognizant
and aware of what's happening around me, whether that's internal
to our organization or external things that I can't necessarily control.
But the reality is I can't worry about things I
(18:05):
can't control, and so all we can do is respond
and react and to keep focused around that. So, as
an organization that is nearly sixty five years old, we've
gone through times where there weren't any rights for people
with disabilities, to huge funding and philosophical changes of the
(18:26):
eighties and nineties, moving out of institutions and so to
multiple recessions and multiple approaches to how our services are funded.
And so when you sometimes when you skip, when you
zoom back out and start of say, let's look at
sort of the directory of this right today doesn't seem
as bad now, doesn't mean that we don't deal with
(18:47):
challenges and things like that. But I think really saying like,
how do we always keep our eye to the future
and then figure out how to navigate those things rather
than being solely focused on what is happening happening today.
So it's it's trying to find those balances.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Yeah, yeah, that's good. I like that. I like that,
appreciate it. Thanks for sharing. Since you've been the organization,
it's it's you know, doubled in size. What advice would
you give you know, other nonprofit leaders out there, you know,
on leadership and navigating you know, this kind of these
(19:27):
kind of uncertain times right now with the you know,
the state, local government and then funding, uh, you know,
gaps and challenges and things like that. Any any advice
for other nonprofit leaders.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
So, I think oftentimes at the moment when whether that's
the pandemic or this moment in time when there seems
to be funding or fiscal or policy challenges, oftentimes are
in a leader's instinct sometimes man many times is just
of go inward right and sort of reflect and retrench.
(20:04):
And I actually think that are what we've done over
the last eight years is using those moments, whether that
was the pandemic or today today, is to sort of
lean in, right, and this is the time to sort
of lean in and think about how we're doing that,
because oftentimes those are also the moments when the people
who need our mission and services and work is at
(20:29):
its highest and so determining how we sort of do that, Again,
you have to be aware of what's happening, but sort
of strategically leaning in and approaching. And so I would
really sort of the advice I would give is just
challenge all leaders to sort of say, what's the way
you can lean in. It may not be is the
(20:49):
way that we are choosing to lean in, but there's
little ways every day that you can lean into this
moment and for the betterment of your organization, for the
betterment of the people you serve, or are the communities
that you're working with.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Yeah, it's funny you say that. I was having a
conversation like this with colleague of mind last week and
we were talking about this, and in particular it was
in regard to nonprofits. But you can say this about anybody.
What is that focus on your core competencies and focus
on those core missions. You know, I've seen you know,
in an effort to you know, expand programming or expand funding.
(21:26):
You you know, some nonprofits start to go out into
things that are beyond their core mission. But yeah, to
your point, maybe right now is the time to really
lean in and focus on those you know, kind of
core values, core mission, core product services, you know, whatever,
you know, type of business that you're in, and you
(21:46):
know and and serve the constituents or serve the you know,
the people that you know are your customers or your community.
So that's good. I appreciate you show you commenting on that.
So what gets excited about the future of a fellow.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
What gets me excited and what drives me every day
is the opportunities that lie ahead in the ways that
we can think about working with the communities that we serve,
how we can think about new opportunities and partnerships to
further our mission and reach and outcomes for the people
(22:27):
we serve. I think that both those opportunities and challenges
are are exciting and I think allows us to sort
of just have a different approach. And that's what gets
me excited every day.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yeah, awesome. And on the other side of things, what
what keeps up at night, I think.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
I think is sort of just not the unknown right
of you can control what's in your sort of sphere
of influence, and so what's that possibility. I don't I'm
someone who doesn't subscribe to over thinking about that or
literally not avoiding my sleep as a result of that.
(23:16):
But I think we just we do, particularly in this
moment of moment in time, just need to be aware
that we can't be surprised by a surprise. How do we?
That's sort of probably the thing that keeps me up
at night the most.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Gotcha to wrap things up? Is there anything else you'd
like our listeners said about you and Fellow.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
I think just that. I think wanting our listeners to
really just know that Fellow who we are and what
we do, and for people to very interested in learning
more about how we could potentially partner together or how
people could access our services, just to go to Fellow
dot org.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, John. It was great
to get to talk with you and get to know
you a little bit more and more about the organization.
So I really appreciate you taking the time out today,
So thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Thank you, John, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
This has been iHeartMedia CEOs.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
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