Looking back at 20 years
I am celebrating 20 years of service at United Way of Greater New Haven this month, April 2026. I am proud of so many different things that we have accomplished over the past two decades, but there are a few specific achievements that stand out in my mind. 
We have redefined and broadened our role to increase our impact and help more families thrive. We are an organization that gets things done. Coordinating projects and initiatives across multiple sectors and organizations; serving as the backbone entity for complex community collaboratives; and providing needed services that fill key gaps in our community.
We have responded quickly and meaningfully during times of crisis. The Great Recession in 2009, the COVID pandemic in 2020, and most recently, the government shutdown in 2025 that cut off SNAP benefits – all led to increased and widespread hardship for our neighbors. Every time, we took a leap of faith to rapidly meet the needs identified by our community, even when the way forward wasn’t completely clear.
We have developed new and creative ways of serving our community, including developing mobile service delivery options, using technology to gather and share data, and constantly asking ourselves, “How can we do this better?” I am proud of our commitment to learn, innovate, and improve.
We have expanded our volunteer program by threefold over the past five years, offering more ways for people to get involved in making a difference in their community and providing more assistance to help our nonprofit partners accomplish their missions.
Thanks to these efforts and more, we have improved the lives of tens of thousands of our neighbors, building a stronger community for all of us. I am grateful for the opportunity to lead such a wonderful team and make a difference in the lives of others.