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2023 40 Under 40 Winners

 
 

Foundation Operations Manager

 

Novant Health Foundation

 

Emily Glesias has been a top performer for the foundation for the last seven years and was promoted into the operations manager role last year. Emily has a strong passion for philanthropy that is reflected in her work every day. She continues to build best practices by always questioning the norm and finding better ways to make our process more efficient, so we can better serve the community. Emily was part of a small group of NH volunteers who coordinated acceptance of hundreds of COVID-19 donations (masks, equipment, employee support items, etc.) to Novant Health, from regional companies and organizations during the beginning of the pandemic. Emily is always taking steps to educate her team on what we do and the impacts we make. She is a true leader that leads by example!

I was lucky to have the opportunity to intern with the New England Aquarium in Boston, MA where I spent a summer learning about grant writing, database management, and prospect research for nonprofits and how to tell the story of how all donors were advancing research and education no matter the size or type of their giving. I fell in love with the impact of the work and decided I wanted to pursue philanthropy operations. One of the first roles that spoke to me was with Novant Health on the operations team and, as they say, the rest is history!

Over the last seven years, I've seen and heard so many stories of gratitude pave the way for projects and advancements for healthcare and health equity within our community... it'd be hard to not see the power behind healthcare philanthropy by what it does to bring people together and not want to continue forward and see what comes next.

During the pandemic, our team took on a variety of volunteer roles. A few of us processed donated supplies from the community to help keep our patient-facing facilities operational. We spent hours combing through hundreds of donations, and it was one of the most inspiring moments of the pandemic and my career. It was the perfect example of how philanthropy and a shared cause brings everyone together. Being at the center of a very critical and high-energy team with tangible evidence of everyone's efforts was affirmation for me that philanthropy operations was where I needed to be.

I love storytelling and finding those "aha!" moments within the work that we do. I love fostering cross-functional team collaboration, diving head-first into big, complex projects, and ensuring everyone has space to be both a dreamer and a doer. Someone took a chance on me and ignited a spark of creativity and passion for this work, and I hope to be able to do that for others.

Take the opportunity to learn and listen to everyone! Join professional development organizations and network, volunteer in your organization, seek out grateful patient stories, and always be curious.

Fun Fact

I used to love filmmaking and would be an extra on set for films and tv shows in high school and shadow the film crew. I had the chance to work with the talented Matthew Modine on a feature film before his most recent role as Dr. Brenner from Stranger Things!

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