SOLID GROUND CONSULTING - Key Persons
Alex's experience as a nonprofit administrator across 20 years is of great value to the many nonprofit clients Solid Ground supports. Her background includes managing C-Suites, serving as board liaison, and overseeing day-to-day operations, human resources, volunteer programs, IT, and event planning. Her focus at Solid Ground is managing client relationships, engagement logistics, supporting executive searches and facilitation of virtual retreats and events.
Prior to joining the Solid Ground, Alex was part of the leadership team at two of California's largest public gardens and most recently at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation in Portland, OR. She is passionate about environmental conservation and is committed to doing her part to ensure we preserve our natural resources. She studied horticulture science and landscape design at Mt San Antonio College and has completed the Nonprofit Management Certificate Program at Oregon State University.
A committed bicycle commuter, Allison Handler embraced the chance to race a tandem bicycle with a master's national tandem champion in Eugene, Oregon, in 2001. Hard training paid off: "In the fourth and final stage, I was drooling and sweating like a pro, but we won the sprint."
In other words, she likes a challenge.
That's what she enjoys about nonprofit management consulting: helping groups - sometimes on the fly - work through a thorny patch to see clear road ahead. Since 2007, Allison has worked with nonprofit organizations and local governments on strategic planning, organizational assessment, business development, fundraising planning and financial feasibility.
She knows the challenges firsthand, having been in the nonprofit and public sector trenches. As a nonprofit board leader, executive director and staff member, she has wrestled with the same kinds of issues and questions as many of Solid Ground's clients.
Allison got her first taste of public service as a land use planner in Missoula, Montana. She went on to found the Land Stewardship Program, a housing land trust in Missoula. She moved to Oregon to serve as the executive director of the Portland Community Land Trust, and she has served on the boards of the National Community Land Trust Network, Northwest Community Land Trust Coalition and Growing Gardens. Her work with land trusts of all stripes has been a happy marriage between her Master of Science in environmental studies (University of Montana) and her Bachelor of Arts in philosophy (Williams College).
Allison knows the challenges firsthand, having been in the nonprofit and public sector trenches.
Early in her career, Allison's longtime interests in the natural sciences led her to become an exhibit interpreter (and one-time exhibit designer) for the paleontology hall of the Science Museum of Minnesota, an environmental educator and a designer of math/science curricula for a youth after-school program. Her mother is relieved she did not become a volcanologist.
But her work space belies that and other interests. Next to a photo of her husband, on her desk stand a big chunk of obsidian, Star Wars figurines, several dinosaur toys and a one-eighteenth inch scale model of her dream car: a 1955 Bel Air. On the wall, framed art features chickens and musical instruments. Allison is an unapologetic banjo player who still hopes to someday be "discovered."
"I think it will be a long wait."
With thousands of trail miles under her feet including several month-long stints on the Pacific Crest Trail, Amy Stork guesses she's jumped into hundreds of mountain lakes. When it comes to mountain swimming, "there is no wading in," she says. "You just have to dive."
"I love to go deep into whatever challenge is facing a community or an organization," Amy says. She has brought this joyous approach to her two decades of work with nonprofits and government agencies as a consultant, executive staff, and volunteer leader. Amy is known for her A-to-Z ability to help assess complex situations, develop high-level strategies, and build on-the-ground plans that work.
Early in Bill's career in private land conservation, he was asked by an important donor what was the Montana Land Reliance's (MLR) biggest success to date. Bill's response was that they were lucky to last as long as they had. The donor advised: "You make your own luck." Bill concluded he was right: "luck" took strong leadership, a commitment to a defined mission, thoughtful and articulate planning, an unwavering dedication to fundraising.
In that time and through his work at MLR, Bill assumed the role of facilitator for the Devil's Kitchen Management Team (DKMT), a Montana stakeholder group that works on hunting and wildlife management issues on private, state, and federal land, known for bringing historically conflicting groups to the table. Some have said DKMT got lucky to get a mix of participants that has meant success and sustainability for the 30-year-old group. Bill says that DKMT made its own luck, taking time to develop trust among the participants so they could move from challenges to solutions on troublesome issues. The combination of trust, dedication to specific goals, and hard work has created tangible conservation success that still function.
Cynthia brings over 20 years of real life experience in all areas of nonprofit work to help organizations become more effective and reach higher levels of impact. Her methods are varied, through developing comprehensive leadership training, full organizational strategic development, mentoring and individualized leadership coaching.
She has served as a volunteer, committee member, program director, board chair, Executive Director, and community activist. Cynthia's having the most fun when she's engaging people and organizations to use their unique leadership skills, and resources, to achieve greater impact in their work.
Dori has been with Solid Ground since it began in 2008. She wears many hats but the largest one is Business Manager. She diligently cares for the finances and keeping best practices throughout the company, as well as being the contract manager and following the proposals to signed contracts.
Jim brings rich experience with organizational development, leadership development and collaboration across nearly four decades, including 30 years as a consultant. His consulting practice focuses on leadership development and durable collaboration / merger.
He's convinced that capacity building depends on growing strong capable leaders and finding ways for groups to tap into their collective capacity. He believes that organizations can build capacity in three ways:
Buy it through increased fundraising to invest in capacity
Build it by growing leadership capabilities within the organization
Borrow it through collaboration with other organizations with overlapping missions
"The lens I use in all my work as a consultant and an organizational leader is community," he says. "How can we make this workplace more of a community? How do we engage our community to fulfill our mission? How do we make our community more inclusive?"
When organizations reach out to the community and find ways to build strong coalitions across the boundaries that usually divide, great things happen. He first learned the power of coalitions when serving as board chair for Basic Rights Oregon in the contentious anti-gay ballot initiatives. The group joined together with communities of color, the faith community, and business groups. Everyone had a stake in building strong, healthy communities, looking beyond their individual interests.
"When I take on a new project with a new client, I always start with two questions: Can I see myself as a part of this team? Is this a ‘we' relationship?" Jim says. "I have to be able to think of my relationship to my client as ‘we.' If I can embrace the mission, I will be one of the best consultants you have ever worked with."
The big room. The tough nut. The difficult conversation. The most vexing problem.
This is what gets Marc up in the morning - usually very early - and drives him through the day: working with leaders of community organizations to make a difference. The bigger the challenge, the better.
For more than 30 years, Marc has served as a guide, a resource, and a partner with hundreds of organizations committed to healthy communities, vital nature, and equitable systems. As a founder of Solid Ground, Marc has cobbled a team designed to empower and embolden leaders to make their communities better places for everyone.
Marc has often been there at the start of things. He was an initial staff member for the Land Trust Alliance, River Network, and the Yakima Greenway Foundation. Other employment stints include United Way and Oregon Wild (then known as the Oregon Natural Resource Council). And in 1999, Marc guided the rollout and start-up of what is now Oregon's fourth largest nonprofit organization, the Energy Trust of Oregon.
This is what gets Marc up in the morning - usually very early - and drives him through the day: working with leaders of community organizations to make a difference. The bigger the challenge, the better.
For more than 30 years, Marc has served as a guide, a resource, and a partner with hundreds of organizations committed to healthy communities, vital nature, and equitable systems. As a founder of Solid Ground, Marc has cobbled a team designed to empower and embolden leaders to make their communities better places for everyone.
Marc has often been there at the start of things. He was an initial staff member for the Land Trust Alliance, River Network, and the Yakima Greenway Foundation. Other employment stints include United Way and Oregon Wild (then known as the Oregon Natural Resource Council). And in 1999, Marc guided the rollout and start-up of what is now Oregon's fourth largest nonprofit organization, the Energy Trust of Oregon.
As a volunteer, Marc has likewise been there in the beginning of things small (like the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy) and big (like the Land Trust Accreditation Commission). He also has held leadership roles at REACH Community Development and Columbia Land Trust.
Through a consulting career traveling actually (and now virtually) across the entire U.S., Marc has worked extensively with groups focused on conservation, climate and sustainability, historic preservation, affordable housing, and health and human services. He has published books on board governance, strategic planning, and fundraising, as well as dozens of articles in journals and periodicals. His workshops are spirited, memorable, and brimming with relevant tools and information. Challenging facilitation is his forte.
College includes a degree from the University of Oregon in Eugene with education spanning the communications arts - from journalism to classical rhetoric. Eugene is also where he found his professional stride and fell in love.
Marc is a native Oregonian whose efforts to migrate elsewhere can't overcome a homing instinct. Marc's head is full of music that spans an eclectic mix, and he can find the perfect lyric from an obscure song from the last century if the circumstances warrant it. Sadly, it seldom does. Family is important, and raising two boys with his partner Amy may be his most important role. Sam and Tucker are now men, and a new generation of community service continues what Marc and Amy have been doing throughout their own lives.
Rich has advised leaders and their organizations across three decades as a consultant, facilitator, and strategist. He began consulting with Solid Ground in 2013. Since then he's led and supported strategic planning, branding, fundraising, executive search, and other initiatives for nonprofit, higher education, and public agency groups across the country. His clients are commonly found among the environmental conservation, historic preservation, and health care sectors.
Throughout his career and in his work today, Rich has had one consistent mantra: Communications starts with listening. He learned this early on as a journalist, and the lesson has stuck with him as a marketer, employer, and now organizational consultant. Inspiring ideas, breakthroughs, and stories are always available to us - when we take the time to listen. And when our listening extends to the full diversity of people within our organizations and communities.
Prior to Solid Ground, Rich co-founded and led a successful business marketing agency in Portland, Oregon. After nearly 14 years as agency principal, he sold his business in 2006 to move his work into supporting organizations committed to social equity and environmental sustainability. Rich began his career as a news reporter after earning a Master's degree in journalism from the University of Oregon. He's never lost his love of writing and storytelling.
When not on the clock, Rich may be found stretching his body in yoga and his mind in book club. Or checking out the many fabulous restaurants and jazz acts around Portland, running the hills in his neighborhood, or bicycling the back roads of Oregon. And he admits his passion for Oregon Ducks football and Trail Blazers basketball has a way of interfering with his household chores.