So actually before I joined Good Reason Houston, I was a program officer with the Powell Foundation and was kind of wanting to transition something new and so connected with someone of the program team at Good Reason Houston and they shared that they I just hired a new chief advancement officer and they wanted to build out a team specifically to focus on foundation relations and so I had coffee with her but really it was the passion of this team member that was really sharing about the work and the vision of what Good Reason Houston wanted to do that really convinced me to make the switch to come over so now I've been in the fundraising role for a year and a half and really love it and love the impact I'm able to make in this role but it really all became from that relationship and really trusting that program-focused person and sort of the vision for what Good Reason Houston can accomplish in our city.

I'm Liz Baer.

I am the director of development at Casa de Esperanza.

And the relationship that comes to mind for me is with my current executive director, Melissa Simon.

She and I met over 10 years ago when she was the director of development at Boys & Girls Country, and I was the volunteer coordinator.

What I remember was that Melissa stayed after the gala to help us clean up and there was a day where we were setting up for a student event and she came and helped us take chairs off the tables and get the room ready and I had never seen someone in that leadership position just pitch in in that way.

She set a really beautiful example and it made me feel like I could actually ask her questions, talk to her, collaborate with her, and we've actually been wonderful collaborators ever since.