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The mission of Prevent Blindness Texas is to prevent blindness and preserve sight. We are leaders and change agents in the eye health space here to empower you!
Hey, it's your eye health experts, Prevent Blindness Texas, and welcome to Eyespiring, a conversation about all things vision and life.
Heather Patrick:Hi, and welcome to Eyespiring. I'm your host, Heather Patrick, the CEO and President of Prevent Blindness Texas. And today, we have Melissa Simon, who is a longtime friend of mine, but also a wonderful and I would say world renowned nonprofit leader, but definitely on the volunteer management and development side.
Heather Patrick:Expertise is phenomenal. So we're going to talk all things CEO today. So with that, Melissa is a CEO for Casa de Arranza de los Ninos, and you'll say it better than I did. She has thirty four years of, I love how you phrase this, progressively responsible experience in the social sector. We met through volunteer management class, teaching that class at Rice.
Heather Patrick:So she's also a teacher, professor, instructor, and she holds a master of social work degree. And she has an interesting background. I'm gonna let her tell you more about that, But with that, I am just super excited to have this conversation and talk about certain leadership. I think ultimately that's kind of the theme that weaves through your career and our experience and what we teach and how I think we approach our work. So I look forward to this.
Heather Patrick:All right, so Melissa, tell us all things you.
Melissa Simon:All things me. All things you. I guess professionally, I had to giggle when you said progressively responsible because isn't that really how your career and your job duties should go, depending on the trajectory that you want. But I did start out after undergraduate and I went to Sam Houston and got my undergraduate degree in criminal justice with a minor in sociology. And I was one of the few people in that program that wasn't going for law enforcement.
Melissa Simon:So I wasn't going to work in the prison as a guard, and I wasn't going to work on a police force. I wanted to do rehabilitation. And so when I graduated, I got my licensed chemical dependency certification, and I worked with children who were in usually middle school in the alternative schools. And that progressed to working with children and families who were involved in the system, so juvenile probation, boot camps. And by that time, I had young kids of my own and I burned out really quickly.
Melissa Simon:It was really hard. I was a lot younger. You get into this field and you think you can fix everyone and you're just going have this huge impact. And I started really thinking about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and really decided that I wanted to impact a bigger systems policy, that kind of thing, which led me to getting my master's degree in social work from University of Houston. Go Cougs.
Melissa Simon:What I really thought I'd be doing, and I'm kind of glad I'm not now, what I really thought I'd be doing would be working in Washington, impacting policy. And that didn't work out for different reasons. And I quite by accident, which I hear all the time from other development professionals, fell into fundraising. And that was really because I was writing and writing grant proposals. And that's really how I got into the development field.
Melissa Simon:But because I had that program background, it really gave me a great perspective and kind of a leg up when it came to working in social service agencies as an MSW with that kind of wide range of experience.
Heather Patrick:Yeah. Yeah. So it's interesting because I didn't go into development and I fell into, I say the nonprofit space too, because it's not where I started. I really hadn't even considered it as a career, but now I've been here for twenty plus years. But I did start on, actually I started on the finance side and then into the program side and eventually into fundraising too.
Heather Patrick:But I do think it is, I think it does give you the advantage and perspective when you've been on the program side and you're trying to have people invest in your impact. You just can, I think, articulate it differently?
Melissa Simon:Absolutely. I mean, the mission sucks you in, I'm a big proponent that, especially when you're working in nonprofit, because that's all I've ever done. Working in an organization where the mission doesn't speak to you would be torture, absolute torture. But I always knew I would do nonprofit. And I think just people have asked me why, and I think a lot of it has to do with just watching my dad, especially.
Melissa Simon:Grew up Catholic and so he was always volunteering, always at our school. And I just watched him. It was all by example. But I think also it all stems from belonging and wanting to belong and having some experiences when I was younger of not feeling like I belonged and then just really having empathy for other people who don't belong. And that's what I see every single day in my work is people who, for whatever reason, don't belong somewhere and need a little bit of compassion and help to get where they need to be.
Heather Patrick:So let's talk about your role and your organization. Tell us what you do, what your organization does, and kind of your pathway to get there. Well. The straight lane that you took to get to CEO.
Melissa Simon:You know what? I'm going to go there first because I was actually driving to a meeting in Austin last week with a colleague who also runs a nonprofit foster care agency. And we were talking about the younger generation, I don't know, staff, employees, and the fact that very often they'll make comments to us about where we are now, and I want to make that kind of money because in nonprofit, you're just really But just the sense that I should be there right now when I'm 25. And we both looked at each other and the bottom line is we're where we are really because we never said no. We just did things.
Melissa Simon:I can't tell you how many internships I worked for no pay, how many projects I took on. I've been an IT director. I've implemented a database, and that was definitely not my job and not on my job description. But at the end of the day, what you're able to say you can do and demonstrate you can do is pretty much anything anyone asks you to do. And I think the big takeaway from that is even if you don't know how to do everything, you now know where to go to find out how to do it and who to ask.
Melissa Simon:But Casa de Esperanza is a foster care agency, and we have been around for almost forty four years. We've, just like most nonprofits, evolved from a very grassroots, what you might say mom and pop organization with very passionate co founders, Kathy Foster and Bill Jones, who really just wanted to keep kids safe. They saw in their work, they saw mostly single mothers who were really struggling to hold it together, to put food on the table, and their children were the ones who were suffering from neglect, abuse, or at risk of that. And so they started in one house. Here, bring your children here.
Melissa Simon:We'll watch them. We'll work with you on getting a job, that kind of thing. And over the years, obviously, it's expanded. And we our own, we're a child placing agency. What that means is that we have foster homes and we have our own foster care neighborhood with several homes in it.
Melissa Simon:And there's been all kinds of changes, pendulum swings with any kind of system. It goes from one end to the other. And so what CASA has done really well over the years and why it survived is adaptation, innovation. When HIV and AIDS came on the scene, those children whose parents maybe were infected or they were sick were not allowed to go to school, so CASA opened a school. They took in those kids.
Melissa Simon:There were a lot of parents who sadly died, and CASA was able to take in those children and adopt them out into loving families. So it's just always been a situation where something happens and there's a need, and we're able to turn and do that. I came in originally as the chief development officer about eight and a half years ago and became CEO. It'll be five years, July 1. And I came in behind a founder and then an interim CEO who recruited me, but who had also been here for about twenty six years.
Melissa Simon:And so what I stepped into was an agency, like a lot of CEOs these days are going to be stepping into, founder led agencies. And there's obviously nothing wrong with that. It's a challenge because when you do need to make decisions that are different than the way it's always been, there are inherent challenges with that.
Heather Patrick:I think that is true. If the CEO has been there a long time and or you have a founder, it gets back to the niche. It's so interesting to me because in some ways the culture is so steeped in. We've always done it this way. But then you also have this remarkable sense of watching organizations also respond and get creative and see innovation.
Heather Patrick:And so it's interesting, this dichotomy of we've always done it this way on one hand, but then you see these groups that are just remarkably innovative and flexible. And so I think as a CEO, part of it is finding that middle piece of how do we really strike that balance of honoring some things that have worked and should stay and continue. Then not always chasing the shiny thing, but what can we take that is innovative and incorporate it into what we're doing? And I do think that is one of the largest challenges and opportunities being in this seat.
Melissa Simon:Absolutely. I think what you said about honoring the past is very important and not letting that stop you from doing what needs to be done, especially when the environment around you changes, which it always is. And I can speak for child welfare. Like I said, it's always been a pendulum swing, but especially in the last ten or fifteen years, there's just been huge shifts. Our mission is to keep kids safe.
Melissa Simon:And I'm very much shortening that mission, but that's the bottom line. And so in order for us to do that and to strengthen families, we have to adapt to what's happening around us.
Heather Patrick:Yeah. Yeah. So with all of that, how do you stay grounded? Because one, the role itself, small nonprofit, large nonprofit, I think just in the sector, especially in this environment over the last year and a half, two years, is really challenging. But then given what the organization also focuses on, I think probably there are some days that are pretty emotional, pretty intense.
Heather Patrick:So how do you keep yourself grounded?
Melissa Simon:Wow. Kind of a loaded question. Well, I think first and foremost, just understanding what the mission is and what I've been charged with. I keep that first and foremost, but I'm a very, very talented compartmentalizer. So to preserve my own energy, mental health, I definitely am very dedicated to I make a calendar appointment with myself every morning at 4AM because that's when I can work out.
Melissa Simon:And if I don't do it, then it doesn't happen. But that's my own time with myself, and I know that that's done, and then I can move on with my day and really focus on what needs to happen at work. Obviously, you know Heather, when you're a CEO, it's twenty fourseven, but that doesn't mean that I'm thinking about work all the time. And there may be CEOs out there who do. I would not survive that way.
Melissa Simon:I mean, this is a marathon, not a sprint.
Heather Patrick:Great way to put it.
Melissa Simon:It's a marathon, not a sprint. I think being And able to kind of focus and think, which is not an easy thing to do because we're always so mired in our tasks and getting our work done right. But being able to just sit and have time to think and think big, that's how I do it. I think as far as the subject content, if you would, I mean, we deal with traumatized children and traumatized families. We have secondary trauma with our staff and just really keeping that front of mind, being kind to ourselves and one another, making sure that we have self care.
Melissa Simon:We've worked really, really hard on our staff culture and just encouraging people to take their PTO. I'm not as great at it as a lot of people are, but I'm trying to get better, making sure that I do things with my friends and family and kids and grandkids and my dog, all the things that people do to stay grounded. Yeah.
Heather Patrick:So what does success look like to you now versus what you thought about it earlier in your career?
Melissa Simon:Oh, well, we already touched on the subject of I was going to save the world. In fact, my husband says that to me a lot. You can't save the world. You can't say No, but you know what success looks like to me now is really realizing you can impact the circle around you. And you mentioned teaching and that's how you and I first met each other.
Melissa Simon:That feeds me. And every time I think I don't have time to do this anymore, I just remember how I feel when I walk out of that room. Anytime someone asks me to mentor somebody, sit down and talk to somebody about their career, do any of those things, I jump on it because that really feeds me. That helps keep me grounded. To me, that's success, knowing that somebody learned something from me, I think is success.
Melissa Simon:I mean, as far as at work, this is not linear. You're going to have really great days and then have a day where you're like, I thought we finally figured this out and you realize you're back to square one. So I think just being able to And then just becoming a better leader and realizing that I made a good decision or stepping out of my comfort zone and doing something I didn't think I could do, that's success too.
Heather Patrick:Yeah, I would agree with that. I think that I share that with you, that love of teaching. It's funny because early in my career when I started training and I was at Susan G. Komen doing grant training actually, I would have never envisioned myself doing that. Even teaching, and I love it.
Heather Patrick:Don't know, I've been doing it for what, a decade almost, right? Maybe even more. I still get, when we start, even the first days, I still get those little like Butterflies? Yeah. Yeah.
Heather Patrick:And then we start and the conversation takes over and I'm with you. I leave there thinking, man, that was amazing. And it's just the conversation. It's the excitement that they have coming into the space and their ideas. It's just really remarkable.
Heather Patrick:But when I think back to you, if you would've asked me twenty five years ago, would I be an instructor at Rice talking about volunteer management? Would've been like, no. No, right? Not at all. But it is one of my favorite things every year.
Heather Patrick:It is that part of it. And when I look back over my career, developing teams and leaders and helping people see themselves the way I see them and what they're capable of doing. Absolutely. Think it's one of the best parts of this job.
Melissa Simon:I would agree. I would agree 100%. Yeah.
Heather Patrick:So when was it in your career that you realized you wanted to be in leadership?
Melissa Simon:Well, I mean, when I was five because
Heather Patrick:because you were already
Melissa Simon:was bossy. Come on. I was leading everything. My brothers will tell you. I thought I was in charge of everything and that has not stopped.
Melissa Simon:I've definitely mellowed and I absolutely understand and believe in the importance of hearing all the voices. But yeah, I think in some way I was going to lead something. I think that's an important point. And to your point just now, when you're developing leaders, really, I think getting people to understand that they can be a leader no matter what their position is, whether it's a position at work, a position at home, what are those leadership qualities that you can develop in yourself that can make you a leader? I'm thinking about having conversations with our friend group about topics that are important to me or to them and being able to articulate those and take a stand on something, that's leadership.
Melissa Simon:Anytime you make a decision or invite people into a conversation, that's leadership. So I think there are many different definitions and ways that you can lead. Yeah.
Heather Patrick:So talk a little bit about, because I know this is really important to you about servant leadership and what does that mean to you and how do you see it play out both immediately in your organization, then also as you think about the sector? Do you think it's something that our industry says or actually embraces?
Melissa Simon:That's a big question. Well, I think first of all, what servant leadership means to me is what we've been talking about, and that is really investing in other people, understanding what we're doing this for. It's really about them and not us. I get very uncomfortable when people want to heap praise on what I do or what I do every day. Me, it's been, it's what I do.
Melissa Simon:It's a calling and I believe in it. But yeah, focusing on other people, whether it's leaders that you're developing, your clients, the people that you're serving every day, really trying to keep the focus on them. I'm a big believer that whoever the best person is for a job, for a speaking engagement, for a visit with a donor, for a visit with a volunteer should do it.
Melissa Simon:It doesn't have to be me. It can be someone who's delivering a program every single day. It can be another volunteer. It can be our wonderful person at the front desk.
Melissa Simon:They're being a leader. So, Yeah, I think that servant leadership is really a focus on others. Does our sector do it? I think in theory, yes. But one thing that I've learned, and I learned this early on when I first took a job in my church, I think everyone's perfect at church well.
Heather Patrick:For that one hour that you're there?
Melissa Simon:We're all people and we all come with our own experiences, our own views of things, our own, you You've know, heard that phrase, everyone has something going on. True. So I think keeping that in perspective, I think in theory, that's why we're the the field that we're in. That's why helping organizations pop up. We wanna do something good for someone.
Melissa Simon:And so I tend to believe that people are inherently good that our sector is inherently good. Then you get down to all the mess of it. You have to raise money, bureaucracy, red tape, HR, all the things that make it really fun. But I think at the end of the day, yes, in our nonprofit sector, especially social services, servant leadership prevails.
Heather Patrick:Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about challenges in this sector because they are a bunch of these days. How do you think, I mean you've been doing this for a long time, right? What do you think is kind of a constants that we're always trying to battle with and what do you think has emerged over the last three to five years?
Melissa Simon:As a sector, as a leader?
Heather Patrick:Well, both. In the sector but also as executive leadership in this space?
Melissa Simon:Well, I think as a sector, I mean, I'm a social worker. And so I think that we will always have people. We will always have people who are at risk of something. And I wish we could solve all of the problems. And I think all of the problems are much bigger than us.
Melissa Simon:And I've been having a lot of meetings with colleagues and other social service agencies lately, and just really, really wanting to I'm a collaborator. And I always simplify it in my head. We could all just sit down and talk about what's really happening, but there's always special interests. What I hate to see is that we all feel like we're competing some way, usually for dollars. And it would be great if we weren't having to do that.
Melissa Simon:And I'm so sorry to say that when people ask me what a big challenge is, I keep saying it's money, but funding for a nonprofit is you can't do your work without it. And you have to be able to pay people. And it does you no good to have a staff who's worried about how they're going to eat and put gas in their car. How are they going to come and help someone else? So I think that's a big challenge.
Melissa Simon:Then it gets bigger than us, and a lot of really good organizations have gone under or lost funding because of cuts to different programs that help people. I say frequently, what kind of world do we want to live in? Think about what kind of world do you want to live in? What do you want to see when you walk down the street? Do we want to see people fed and housed and thriving?
Melissa Simon:Well, then we have to go to work and figure it out. Yeah, at the root of it. And I think also a challenge that we've all seen is people not coming together to work on a problem and trying to solve it, just kind of really focusing on their own special interests. I'm not just talking government. I think it happens.
Melissa Simon:Oh yeah. Yeah, across the sector. Yeah, it sure does.
Heather Patrick:Yeah. I definitely am probably one of the reasons we are Another reason we are friends because I agree, I think there's collaborative in approach in nature in every space of the sector I've been in because I feel like the issue is so much larger than any one organization. So if we really want to maximize impact, being able to leverage what each organization brings to the table is ideal, but it's also incredibly hard to do. Because at the end of the day, we are competing for dollars. Even if we're in different spaces in the sector, ultimately it is we are.
Heather Patrick:Absolutely. It's about market share when you cut it all away. I think that's the other We've had this conversation and I think that's what I see now being here for twenty plus years and being in this role for nine, almost nine years. And there's this, I still think we have this, I will say opportunity to really help leaders coming in the space have a deeper background and experience and skills around executing businesses. Because at the end of the day, we are a nonprofit, but we are a business.
Heather Patrick:That's a tax status for us basically. But we are a business. And I think so many come into, especially the the executive leadership, having that functional expertise, understanding what it's like boots on the ground, but you have to shift that when you're in leadership. I mean, that was, I think, one of the hardest things for me to learn was when you're so successful at executing that functional expertise and checking those things off your list and seeing very tangible results of your work and then you move into leadership and you recognize that is not, that happens rarely actually, that you see very tangible results. And I think that was one of the, I an incredible mentor who we has also been on this show.
Heather Patrick:And that was one of the things she really helped me understand was that the success looks very different at the leadership level in the sense of what is the output. But that was a big shift. I think when I look at the sector, I wish we had that more investment in that capacity to understand all facets of executing a business, to just deepen and strengthen our positions, to be able to be innovative and have funds and understand how to utilize branding to drive revenue and all of those pieces that you have to have in order to really be successful.
Melissa Simon:You do. But of course, as you know, we learn a lot of that on the job as we go. We do. And it's interesting because I will tell you, I believe that I'm a lifelong learner. I know you feel the same way.
Melissa Simon:I'm always amazed at all of the extra things that you do, and I'm trying to figure out how you do it. But I can honestly say that I probably learn something new either about myself, about what I didn't know, about the sector, about child welfare every day. I can either look back and say, Wow, I really messed that up, or I can move forward and do it differently. And as you were talking, I don't know, something brought me back to, you're right, we do have to be strategic in this position. But when you ask me how I stay grounded, I will say that one way that I stay grounded is I really try to, as often as I can, and it's never often enough, really go into the neighborhood, go see the kids, go talk to the foster parents.
Melissa Simon:We had a lunch and learn yesterday with about 15 moms who have been through our program with their kids, and it was just amazing to see them get together and have a good time. And those are other times that keep you grounded. And we need that. Need the mission moments so that we can talk about what we do to other people or with other people and stay grounded with the reason we're doing this, because it gets really easy to just think about those challenges and the funding and the HR and the things that really are daily challenges.
Heather Patrick:Yeah, I would agree with you. Going back to our why. Why does this matter? And to that point of, right, we may not change the world, but we change someone's world each And that ultimately for me, I have to remind myself this is why we do the work. Absolutely.
Heather Patrick:I agree with you. And we have a really cool process. And it was amazing because when I worked at Coleman, we didn't, I would say rarely did we get like written success stories, but here we get success stories, probably like 10 of them a month.
Melissa Simon:That's great.
Heather Patrick:And it is really, it is so amazing to, one, and they're all written, so they're still taking the time to write something about themselves and the service and sending it to us. I think that says so much to me that we did a good enough job that they took the time to write to us. Right. Yeah, that's great. That's great.
Heather Patrick:I love getting them. And we read them. And most of the time we share them out to our board. But I love that part of the work too, of knowing that. And it is, you're right.
Heather Patrick:Every day there is something. In this role, every day there is something. Many days there are many things. But coming back to that piece of this is why we do what we do.
Heather Patrick:Yeah. Yep. So when you think about your legacy, when you look back over your career and you think I want people to remember X about my career, my legacy, what does that look like for you?
Melissa Simon:Well, I mean, I'm always gratified if someone says that they learned something from me, that they admired something that I did, that it inspired them to do something. I was just thinking about that. We had a staff member who lost a parent last week and when I went to the wake and I was just thinking, what would I want people to think when I die? Not to be morbid, it's along the lines of what you just asked, that I touch them in some way. It could be anything.
Melissa Simon:It doesn't have to be what I did for a living, but I think that's that whole servant leadership idea. And trust me, I could be a lot better. I'm not the most thoughtful person. I'll put it that way. I'm pretty stoic and put my head down and get some stuff done.
Melissa Simon:But I got a text this morning from a friend and colleague who sent me a little picture of something and said that she admired that I did this every day, right? That's what. It's people. At the end of the day, we're here for relationship, whatever that looks like. To me, that's what matters.
Melissa Simon:I don't need my name in lights. We all impact people in a different way. So for me, that's enough. Yeah. Connection.
Melissa Simon:Connection. Absolutely. Belonging. Yeah. Belonging.
Heather Patrick:Back to that belonging. Back to that belonging. Yeah. All right, so when you look at the sector, and this will be our last question, so when you look at the sector, what is your hope for the sector over the next five years?
Melissa Simon:I mean, my hope for the sector is that we all come together in some way. Every time I talk to a colleague who's running another organization, we all come back to, we're all serving essentially the same people. Your mission is way different than my mission, but I will bet you that if we talk to some people, they would all come up with some of the same challenges. So my hope for the sector, I would love to see funders get us together. The funders have the big picture.
Melissa Simon:They talk to all of us. They know what we're doing. They know how we could work together. I really believe that. Would love to see them convene us together to see how we can not only work together to solve a problem, to impact lives, to make it better for people, but also to do it more efficiently.
Melissa Simon:And let's write a proposal together. Let's bring in all of these resources. Let's not reinvent the wheel and do something that someone else is already doing. Yeah.
Heather Patrick:Yeah. I agree. We often kid, but ultimately, I do think it's somewhat true of, really, there's a million nonprofits trying to solve 10 problems. Exactly. Is there a way we can do it more effectively?
Melissa Simon:Absolutely.
Heather Patrick:And I think you're right. I think that when those investing can have the opportunity to bring those voices together and challenge I think us to work more effectively together.
Melissa Simon:Agreed. I'm gonna start working on that, Heather. Stay tuned.
Heather Patrick:I'm here to help you. I will support you in that. Great. All right, my friend. Thank you.
Heather Patrick:Thank you. For sharing your insight and your wisdom and your passion for the sector and for the work you do and for being a great teacher because you are a great teacher.
Melissa Simon:Thank you Heather.
Heather Patrick:Thank you for that. All right everyone, well we are wrapping up this episode, but as always, you can be a part of the Prevent Blindness family. You can be a volunteer. You can be a donor. Can be an advocate for us.
Heather Patrick:Reach out to us anytime. We are always looking to have people join our PBT family. And thank you again, We appreciate you. My pleasure. And as always, we're always interested in knowing what your vision is.
Heather Patrick:Thanks and have a great day.