Job Spotlight: Monique Turner-Lopez, CEO of The Family Center
Monique Turner-Lopez practically grew up on helping others in one way or another, having spent her 30-year career in the world of nonprofits.
Working in the Peace Corps? She checked that one off the list early on.
Handling programming for a YWCA? She tucked that one under her belt back home in Connecticut.
Directing youth and family services for Easter Seals and Goodwill Industries? She's been there and done that.
Those array of positions are what made her hiring as the chief executive officer of The Family Center of Columbus a natural fit. It's at the center's office building at 1350 15th Ave., not far from Lakebottom Park, that she and her staff of 25, with an annual budget of $1.4 million, assist local residents with a four-pronged lineup of services.
(Click here for The Family Center on Facebook)
Most everyone has heard of Big Brothers Big Sisters, and the Consumer Credit Counseling Service gets plenty of business. There's the Family Counseling of Columbus, which provides outpatient clinical services to young and old, individuals, couples and entire families. And there's Families and Schools Together (FAST), an after-school program that aims to nip myriad problems in the bud before they spin out of control.The Family Center's vision statement sums the effort up nicely: "Families leading healthy, stable lives and achieving their potential."The Ledger-Enquirer visited with Turner-Lopez, 49, recently at her office, discussing her path to Columbus, her thoughts on how badly needed the center's services are, and what she hopes to accomplish down the road.
In general, how did you arrive at this point in your life, in Columbus?
All my life, even as a child, I knew that I wanted to live in warmer weather. When I was in the Peace Corps in the early '90s, I said I'm going to probably end up somewhere in Florida. I went back to Washington D.C. because I knew I could get a job there, and I had a number of contacts and went to undergrad at Georgetown in D.C.
So I went to D.C. and lived there several more years until my early 30s and realized I needed a change: Now's the time to go to Florida. My mother (in Connecticut) said why don't you wait, why don't you come live with me, save your money and then you can buy a condo. This is in 1998. She said come live with me a year or two. I said two years? Because I always said I would never go back to Connecticut because of the snow.
... Then 17 years later, married with two children, I did the math. I took 1998 and subtracted it from 2013 and said, whoa, this was not in the plan. So I said to my husband, I'm ready. I cannot wait until we are in our 60s to make this move. So we kind of mapped out a plan. We narrowed it down to Charleston, S.C., all of Georgia, and anywhere north of Tampa, Fla.
I then began searching Indeed.com and Idealist.org for a CEO position, and I came across The Family Center. I went to their website and everything that they said that they did, I had some expertise in. I was very familiar with Consumer Credit Counseling Service. I was very familiar with and had run family improvement programs like FAST. For years, I've done positive youth development programs like Big Brothers Big Sisters. And for many years I worked with partners that focused on outpatient clinical services. So it felt like a great fit from the very beginning.
When you got here in July 2015, did you hit the ground running?
I hit the ground running with the help of an amazing team and, for meetings, my GPS on my phone to get me from point A to point B.
You brought your passion with you, obviously.
Absolutely, my passion has always been to help families. I used to say to help them move out of poverty. Now I like to say bring more abundance to their lives, to put a more positive spin on it. So abundance, whether it's emotional well-being; financial stability; prosperity in the sense of feeling good about your life and knowing where you want to go and that you have ownership of it; a stronger sense of self-efficacy; and obviously that you have a strong support system that can help you get to where you want to be or where you would love for your children to be to realize their goals, potential and dreams.
What has been your impression of Columbus and the need for your center's services?
Oh, my goodness. There's such a need for the organization in every shape and form. Poverty in the North looks different. It looks very different in Connecticut, which is a wealthy state ... That wealth there does not necessarily permeate throughout. ... But what I see here is that it's a much deeper level of poverty, and a much deeper level of poverty that spans more generations than it does in the North.
There's an even bigger need. I'm blown away sometimes just by driving to see the conditions that a lot of people are living in that you don't necessarily see in Connecticut. I won't speak for all of New England.
Is it a challenge getting folks into the center to use your services?
Obviously, transportation can be a challenge because we're located here in midtown. So for somebody that lives farther away and has unreliable transportation that can be a challenge. I would love for us to serve more people in Phenix City. One day I would like to see us have, for example, a satellite office of our counseling services there.
And any day of the week you can open up the paper and read the news, you can listen to NPR, you can watch the news on TV and see the tragedies and the crimes of passion that happen as a result of someone having either a diagnosed or undiagnosed mental illness or having a co-occurring disorder.
We have the oldest outpatient clinic here and we do accept certain insurances. If you cannot pay because you don't have enough insurance we have a sliding scale. So we will meet people where they're at.
Mental illness is a focus for your center?
We hope to de-stigmatize the myths behind mental illness, the myths behind going to see a clinician and a therapist, and also educate people about getting the help they need and knowing that these services exist, and that we have these other supports.
There's no other agency in Columbus where you can come, receive the emotional wellness support that you need, go to the other side of the hallway and, if finances are causing you additional stress, we can get you on a debt management plan. We can help you prevent foreclosure of your house. We can prevent you from having to declare bankruptcy. That will hopefully decrease your level of stress or depression that you may be going through.
And as your children are in need of support, we have a Big Brothers Big Sisters program where they can receive a one-on-one mentorship with a healthy, positive, nurturing adult who's been vetted. We do the background checks and everything, and we're affiliated with the National Association of Big Brothers Big Sisters. And if you happen to be at one of the schools where we have the FAST program, that you and your children together can participate in that program.
How many people do you serve?
About 5,000-plus a year. I think we could handle more as long as we have the resources to do so. We must make sure we have the revenue coming in to hire high-quality staff and make sure we have other supports that we need to provide those types of services to people. So there's always room for growth.
Where does your revenue come from?
We have multiple revenue sources. Our largest funder is the United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley, though we do have corporate sponsors. We also have private foundations. We receive money from the city of Columbus. We have two grants that come down through subcontractor relationships and those are federal grants through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. We have a diverse portfolio of funds.
Is money a persistent challenge?
I try not to hold onto that philosophy. When you grow up in the nonprofit world, you start to believe the myth of there's never enough money. I like the mantra that there's an infinite pool of resources out there. It's just my job to go out there and find it.
Which of your programs assists the most people?
Probably Consumer Credit Counseling Services, because we also offer VITA, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance tax return preparation. We get a lot of people in seeking assistance for their financial solvency. It could be a situation where they were laid off, or they retired from the military and didn't realize their expenses were going to be that high and their military pensions and whatever assets they have is not enough to cover their family's needs.
They also might have a situation where there's a divorce, death or a loved one that became ill that has made it very difficult for them to make their mortgage payments on time. They may have had a business that went under and they had to declare bankruptcy. There are many, many reasons, things that you cannot anticipate and, in some cases, it's things that you saw but were not aware of our services that can help.What is the most difficult part of your job, juggling so much?
I love that because that's what I thrive on. (laughs) I really don't see anything as a challenge. I think it's more of a learning opportunity. It's an opportunity for me to learn and grow and sharpen my skills, not that this or that is a problem.
What's the key to running an organization, such as this one, smoothly?
We have a great team. No man is an island. I believe that you hire experts in the field that you're not an expert in. That's not my role, to be the person who knows everything. I am the person that brings certain attributes to the table, and everybody in this organization, they are a genius in their own rights. It's about maximizing our resources together.
Are you a hands-on CEO?
I'm very hands on. In fact I once read a book that was written by a gentleman who was on (the TV program) Undercover Bosses, called "Love Works." And it says: I like to see myself as the chief encouragement officer. That always stuck with me.
What is a major goal for you at The Family Center?
Increasing the visibility of the agency and getting that awareness out there that we're here to serve people and we have all of these wrap-around services and supports available to pretty much anyone. It's not limited just to people who are the hardest to reach or in the lower- to moderate-income level. This is for anyone that could benefit from it, regardless of your current or past circumstances or how much you make annually, with the exception of VITA. Those are stipulations that the government sets in terms of total annual household income ($54,000 limit to use VITA).
What else would you like to see happen?
I certainly would love to see us serving more people. And I would like to be able to offer services in a school that has a large number of Latino families, where we can do the FAST program in Spanish. I also would like us to have a certified financial counselor who speaks Spanish so that if somebody comes in and they, too, are facing financial issues and instability, that we can help them in their native language. And I will get to know Columbus even more to see where there's a gap in services and where we can offer more support, and where there's more opportunities for growth as well in developing really strong strategic partnerships.
BIO
Name: Monique Turner-Lopez
Age: 49, soon to be 50 (and looking forward to the big “5” “0”!)
Hometown: Wolcott, Conn.
Current residence: LaGrange, Ga. (hopes to move closer to Columbus this summer)
Education: 1984 graduate of Sacred Heart High School in Waterbury, Conn.; earned bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University in 1988; studied at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, in 1986-1987; earned a master’s degree in human services administration from Springfield University in 1996
Previous jobs: Has more than 30 years of experience with non-profits both in the U.S. and in Latin America;Former chief program officer of YWCA Hartford Region; former director of youth/family services for Easter Seals/Goodwill Industries in New Haven, Conn.; Center City Churches, Hall Neighborhood House; started her career working on international development and education programs for Pakistani and Honduran scholars. After the Peace Corps, switched her career focus to helping low-income children, youth and families move out of poverty
Family: Husband Frank Lopez, and two children (adopted in 2011), son, Emmari, 12, and daughter, Emani, 10
Leisure time: Enjoys traveling in local areas, throughout the U.S. and overseas; does some crafting, visits flea markets and state fairs; loves many genres of music, from Led Zepellin to Ruben Blades; practices Transcendental Meditation; loves the performing arts; and is addicted to the online games candy crush, cookie jam and soda crush
Of note: She’s a former Peace Corps volunteer, serving in the Dominican Republic from 1991-1993; fluent in Spanish; climbed to the top of Machu Picchu (in Peru) and walked back down in the pitch black despite the little poisonous snakes surrounding her; lived in Colombia during the height of the Medellin Cartel and traveled through Peru during the decade of the terrorist group, the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso); moved to Georgia to be in a warmer climate and closer to her sister (my only sibling), who lives in Johns Creek, Ga., (north Atlanta) with her family
This story was originally published February 28, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Job Spotlight: Monique Turner-Lopez, CEO of The Family Center ."