Meet Shara, CEDAM’s new member engagement coordinator! CEDAM recently hired three individuals to increase our capacity in light of our recent, and fast, growth. Shara is one of those three, and she is in this new position working in tandem with our director of member engagement. Shara comes to CEDAM with a plethora of administrative and planning experience. Our communications specialist, Jennifer, talked with Shara to get to know her better.

Jennifer Lareau-Gee, communications specialist: Can you give me a brief overview of what you were doing before joining CEDAM and how that led you here?

Shara Washington, member engagement coordinator: Right before CEDAM, I worked with the Michigan Senate in Senator Sarah Anthony’s office. At the time, she was the appropriations chair. I did her scheduling and managed the office. I previously worked in the legislature for a few years with the Michigan House of Representatives and that gave me my first experience working in the legislature and directly in politics. Before that I worked at Everett High School in their main office. Then I also worked with Public Sector Consultants; we worked by proxy with with different legislators and government relations representatives with lobby firms.

When I saw this opening at CEDAM, it caught my attention. I’ve never worked in this field and I thought this would be a good opportunity. I thrive in administrative work, I’ve done it for a long time, but in this role it isn’t the main focus and that’s what I was drawn to. In all the roles I’ve had, it’s been me wanting to be some place where I’m helping and a resource. It’s a mix of things I have experience with and learning new processes and responsibilities. There’s excitement and joy in learning something new and having to use a different part of your brain. This is especially true in a role within membership and events where you’re working with a lot of the different departments and there’s cross collaboration.

Jennifer: What are you looking forward to most in this role, working at CEDAM?

Shara: I’m excited about my role, but when I was looking at the job description and reading more about CEDAM I became very intrigued. At my previous job, I had to know of CEDAM and what CEDAM was, but I didn’t really have an understanding of what CEDAM did. Learning about their members across the state, their push for diversity and inclusion, and their goal of wanting to make Michigan a better place meant a lot. CEDAM stands for a lot of the same things I do and that I’m passionate about. The older I get, the more I’m getting into what my purpose is in my career, I don’t want to be aligned with things that don’t sit well with me. This organization that cares about Michigan— from the citizens to communities and organizations—I’m excited to see how I can fit in and contribute.

Jennifer: What excites you most about community development as a field?

Shara: The collaborative aspect of community engagement and development. It’s like different organizations within organizations within the community economic development field all working through different lenses but toward the same overarching goals; I think that’s the part that excites me. It’s the people in the community coming together to find ways to improve the community from all these different lenses and points of view. The things I would never think of if I’m not in a certain career (like environmental planning for example) but I agree need to be considered and a part of community development. You get to hear all these different perspectives from different organizations and different communities about what they want to see improved in their community. I like the collaborative part of that because we’re all different with differing experiences and points of view and I think that’s the point. People are jointly working toward the same goal and trying to figure out what is plaguing the community and what initiative to tackle. I like that we are a resource guide to those conversations and provide ways we can help improve those processes so that those conversations can continue to happen.

Jennifer: What do you want to get the most out of this role?

Shara: I want to understand how nonprofits work; I want to understand more in-depth about the community economic development field and how it is constantly growing and we’re improving within it. Also, I just want to learn. I want to learn something new. I don’t like doing the same thing over and over. I’m a student at heart so I’ll never not have something to do or something to read. I feel like in this world, that urge for learning and constantly seeing ways that I am contributing to something I’m passionate about, that’s what stops me from questioning what I’m doing or why I’m doing it. Because of the nature of this field, there’s a network of people who are all trying to do the same thing and we can help with that. So being able to be collaborative, not only the people here at CEDAM, but also with all the different organizations who have similar goals through different lenses is what I’m looking forward to and is very helpful. I’m excited to be a witness, help, and support all of these different organizations in Michigan and see how different the goal line looks.

Lightning Round Get-to-Know-You Questions

What’s the last book you read?
The Four Agreements by Don Ruiz; Will by Will Smith (audiobook).

What’s a current or recent TV/movie you enjoyed?
Love Island USA & UK, Bridgerton Season 3, Dark Matter on AppleTV, House of Dragons.

If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?
Fiji. They have pretty water and beaches, sunshine, and they’re remote. Plus, I’ve never been.

What was the last concert you attended?
Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour when it was in Detroit

Do you have any hobbies right now?
Puzzles, sudoku, crossword puzzles, solitaire.

                                                              Shara at Animal Kingdom in Orlando, FL.